Meghan's Adventure Blog: Northland, North Island, New Zealand

I am here at the Auckland Airport waiting to board to come home. Yes our trip has come to a close. It has gone by so fast. I thought I would do one last post before we leave.

On sunday we flew from Christchurch to Auckland, hired a car and drove north to the tip of the country. It takes about 5 hours to drive to the tip but we did it more leisurely, stopping alot to see the sights and shop. We spent one night in the Bay of Islands which is on the east coast of the tip and then two nights at a little surfing town of Ahipara on the west coast. We really liked Ahipara. It was located at the start of 90 mile beach which is an endless beach with hard sand for driving on and not many buildings around. It is not actually 90 miles long though. Apparently this weekend there is a marathon on the beach. Too bad we will miss it.

We found lots of arts and crafts to shop for in all the little towns and our last full was spent on 90 mile beach boogie boarding, swimming and relaxing on it after taking a 1 1/2 hr run down the beach right from our backpackers. The last night was totally clear with no clouds which made for great viewing of the southern hemisphere stars. It was a great end to the trip with no rain lots of sunshine and warmth but a few sunburns!

Our last night in Ahipara enjoying the sunset and a bourbon and coke.

The very very remote beach on the karikari penisula driving to Ahipara. Only us and the birds. Very peaceful.

A very tasty breakfast we enjoyed at the treaty grounds near the Bay of Islands. It was a pancake pileup with blackberry sauce, mango compote, yogurt and bacon. Some of the best pancakes I have ever eaten. The kiwis like to but bacon on all their pancake meals.

One of our lunch stops along the way-pork and salami make your own sandwich at Cable bay near Cooper's Beach. The seagulls really wanted to eat our food as John tempted them with chips.