March 26th- March 28th
On Saturday morning I bid Amanda farewell and hopped on a shuttle to the Dunedin airport. Upon my arrival, I got my ticket from the counter and wandered about 25 metres to the gate area, which consisted of a few cafes, a gift shop, and the gates...sans security. Wait, what? Did I somehow miss the big conveyor belts and metal detectors which are an integral part of any airport that I’ve ever been to? Looking around for the security gates or any uniformed guards running after me, I was surprised to see that there didn’t appear to be any sort of security check once you get your ticket and check your luggage. I guess Dunedin isn’t exactly a hub of crime or target for world threats, but this completely took me by surprise.
If you ever visit New Zealand, let me recommend flying Air New Zealand. Even though my flight up to Auckland was relatively short, they still provided us with free tea and coffee, snacks, and a little lolly (hard candy) during the flight. Much better than most U.S. airlines and quite a bit better service than some of the other local airlines I’ve flown. Upon arrival in Auckland, a shuttle took me to the hotel (not a hostel or a tent? Whoo hoo!) and my parents! It was so great but kind of unreal to see them there in New Zealand. They’d already done a bit of exploring and scoped out the closest bakery, of course, but for dinner we decided to go into Auckland and eat at the rotating SkyTower restaurant since there was a deal for free admission with the price of dinner. Even though it was rather cloudy, which impeded our views of the city, it was still a delicious, and much fancier than I was accustomed to, meal and it was fun to be able to catch up while watching Auckland rotating slowly below us through the mist. Around 9 o’clock jet lag began to catch up with the ‘rents which, considering they’d been travelling for over 24 hours, was not surprising. It was so nice to sleep in the hotel room that night since Auckland is much warmer than Dunedin and I didn’t have to worry about being cold all night or getting ready in the near dark to save power...ahh the luxury J
The next morning we had to get up early to catch a bus up to Kaitaia, from where we would travel to 90 Mile Beach and Cape Reinga the next day. We attempted to get an early breakfast at the bakery, but it wasn’t open before 7, which is pretty normal in New Zealand. They value sleep much more than Americans which is frustrating at times (like 6:45am when you’re hungry) but overall seems to be a much healthier lifestyle than the “go, go, go” attitude in the States. A taxi took us into central Auckland, where we were able to find an open coffee shop right across from the bus terminal. We don’t have a coffee pot in our flat so I had been living on the cheapest instant mix that we could find and, let me tell you, that mocha I got was the best coffee I had tasted in a looong time. I’m pretty sure I mentioned how good it was no less than 15 times...it was amazing. Another interesting thing was that the door of the shop was left open and a couple of birds flew right in and perched on one of the tables to eat someone’s leftovers, which didn’t seem to perturb anyone. After our wonderful coffee and muffins, we boarded our InterCity bus to head north. Though I had become somewhat used to seeing the beautiful rolling hills and sheep pastures and all of the other mountain scenery, for my parents everything was new, which helped to give me a fresh perspective as well and renew some of my wonder at the fact that I actually get to live here for 3 more months still! Kaitaia is a very wee town and, especially on a Sunday, nothing much was open by the time we arrived. As we hauled the suitcases down to the motel from the bus stop, it seemed like the only option for food that wasn’t going to cost an arm and a leg might be Subway. I was told by a Kiwi (so hopefully a reliable source) that New Zealand has the most Subways per capita, surpassing even McDonald’s. They do seem to be everywhere, even in the small towns that don’t have any other fast food venues. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by the manager of the motel who was extremely nice and immediately offered to drive us back to the bus stop when we left since it was a rather long walk with suitcases. After this hospitality, we felt rather bad for leaving his restaurant in search of cheaper food, but Subway and the Pak ‘n’ Save (New Zealand’s discount food store) were calling our names from right down the street. I’d wanted to check out the Pak ‘n’ Save in Dunedin for quite some time, but it’s about 2 miles away which would be quite the walk with groceries so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to bargain shop! We picked up sandwiches from Subway, found some breakfast and snacks for the next day, and headed back for another early night before another early wake-up call for our tour to the Cape.
The next morning, the bus picked us up right in front of the motel and we began the journey to 90 Mile Beach. The driver, who also served as the tour guide, loved to make jokes and would laugh (it was really more like a cackle) loudly over the microphone after every one, presumably to encourage us to laugh as well. Before we got used to this however, it was rather grating on the ears and seemed like we could be headed for a long day with a thick Kiwi accent and jokes we didn’t realize were supposed to be funny until the cackling would, once more, commence. From what we could understand, though, he was very informative and stopped at quite a few places to let everyone get out and take pictures before carrying on. Once we reached 90 Mile Beach (which is actually closer to 70 miles) he drove right down onto the sand, explaining that the beach is actually better to drive on than the roads at low tide and is the cleanest road in New Zealand...because it gets washed once a day but the surf! Ha ha ha ha ha! It was really cool being able to drive so far along the beach, right over the sand and through the occasional stream that would be making its way down to the ocean.
After driving almost the entire length of the beach we turned into a stream bed which took us inland to the sand dunes. The transition from ocean to grassy hills to enormous dunes and plains of sand only took about half a mile. Then we parked on the more solid part of the stream bed so that the bus wouldn’t sink in and were handed our toboggans and given a brief tutorial on their proper use: sit down, lift up your feet, hold on to the back, and keep your mouth shut. My mom and I took the first hike up the dune while my dad stayed at the bottom to take pictures. It was very windy on the way up and the sand kept trying to whip us off of the dune and steal our toboggans from us. Looking down from the top, it was actually more intimidating than I thought it would be and hurtling through the sand towards an uncertain end in the creek bed at the bottom appeared slightly dangerous. However, after bungy jumping, this dune was not going to get the best of me. As instructed, I sat down in what appeared to be the chosen path (though I couldn’t see any distinction between it and the rest), grabbed onto the back, lifted my feet up, was instructed by one of the guides to scream (trying to get me to eat sand, the trickster), and took off! It was not quite as exciting as expected the first time, but going back for another trip was made more interesting when I took an unexpected hard left about halfway down the dune which nearly toppled me right over. Fortunately, due to my extreme sand toboggan prowess (ha!) I was able to right my course and complete the journey with no more major mishaps, but completely covered in sand and very windswept. 
We returned to the bus, attempting in vain to get rid of the sand which was now firmly lodged in every crevice which had been exposed, and continued on our way along the stream. This eventually led us back to a paved road, from which we travelled to a deserted beach for our picnic lunch. Though rather windy, it’s hard to compete with scones, cookies, coffee, and lots of snacks overlooking waves breaking on the beach and crashing against the rocks. The next stop was Cape Reinga, which is what I was really looking forward to after learning of its history and importance in my Māori Society class. The bus dropped us off at the top of the Cape, from which you could see the lighthouse at the end of the point. Only a little ways down the path we turned a corner to see what looked like a huge foamy anchor in the sea where the Tasman and Pacific oceans collided. You could actually see the waves coming in from different directions and meeting in the middle before rebounding back. The path ended at the lighthouse overlooking the sea where the Māori believe that the souls of the dead leave New Zealand forever and travel to spiritual home. You could also see the lone tree, known as Te Aroha, which appeared to be growing out of the rocks a little ways down the cliff and whose roots form the steps which the spirits take on their descent to the sea. 
By the time we had all taken pictures and tramped back up the hill to the bus it was getting on into the afternoon and we only had a couple more stops before returning to Kaitaia. One of these stops was at a convenience store in a little town which was advertised to have the biggest ice creams on the north island. Of course we had to check the validity of this claim and I was pleased to find that, though the south island definitely gives you bigger cones for less money, they had cookie dough ice cream! This is a rarity in NZ for some reason, so I was extremely happy after missing it for 2 months J The day was made complete when we stopped at a beautiful bay which had the brightest clear turquoise water and opened into the ocean, in from which swam a giant sting ray! Much excitement and picture taking ensued, after which we boarded the bus for the final time and headed back to the hotel for our last night in the north before we travelled down to Dunedin for our next adventures (and a couple classes, in my case, but those aren’t nearly as exciting).
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