This past weekend my friends and I rented a car and drove up to the Bay of Islands. Not only did we manage to drive on the left side of the road successfully, but we also managed to see some amazing scenery while we were at it. We left Auckland early Saturday morning and drove north towards Paihia. On the way we stopped at One Tree Point (there was more than one tree so I was a little confused as to how that name came to be). After etching our names into the side of the water-eroded cliff, we hopped back into the car. We ate lunch in the small town of Kawakawa-- unknown to us at the time, this is the location of the "most photographed toilet in New Zealand." (On the Way home on Sunday, we made it a point to stop and see this odd attraction: Handertwasser toilets) After lunch, we drove to Paihia and checked into our hostel. We next drove to Kerikeri ("dig dig") in order to see the oldest house and oldest stone building in New Zealand. That day we stopped at several waterfalls: the Whakapuna, the Rainbow Falls, and the Hururu Falls--the only other concave falls apart from Niagara falls. Before going to a local pub to watch the All Blacks play rugby, we took a dip in the Pacific Ocean :)
On Sunday we woke up and walked down to the beach only 100m from our hostel. We had an entire beach to ourselves. later, we ate lunch by the Whangarei Falls, explored the Abbey Caves, played around in a Rock Forest, and attempted to catch sheep. On the way home we stopped at Waipu Cove in order to breath in the ocean air one last time before returning to Auckland.
 |
| Climbing in the Rock Forest |
 |
| Whangarei Falls |
 |
| Paihia Beach in the Morning |
 |
| Just a little refresher on the way to Whakapuna Falls |
No comments:
Post a Comment