Man oh man. It's been a busy couple of weeks.

The after returning from Waihi Beach, Andrew, Ashleigh and I headed to Auckland to pick up our rental car. To date, I've only found one rental company that'll lend a car to people who are under 21: Explore More. We were able to rent the car fairly inexpensively, though the insurance bond on the car was a bit terrifying if you're between 18 and 20. We decided not to pay extra to bring the bond down in price because 1. we are college students with small money reserves and 2. I had already driven to and from New Plymouth and was fairly comfortable with driving on the left/wrong side of the road. So off we went in our Mizda Grizzly, which I thought looked more like a tattered cat than anything else. After spending the day in Auckland, seeing the penguins at the Kelly Tarleton Aquarium and dropping Andrew off at the airport, Ashleigh and I headed north.

We drove to Paihia, which is the gateway for the Bay of Islands and checked into the Mousetrap Backpackers Hostel. The next morning we woke up early and stood on the curb waiting for our 7.15am pickup for the 4x4 Dune Rider Tour to the Far North region of New Zealand with Joyce, a Dutch girl staying in the Hostel, and a Russian guy who didn't speak a word of English the whole day. Barrelling around the corner, came this huge converted army supply truck with wheels that reached my chest. The name of the tour definitely began to make better sense from this point forward. It was pretty amusing to drive up to hotels and see the 50-somethings boarding the regular boring charter buses and glancing warily are the 4x4 while the youngers stumped up it's steps.

The first stop we made was in the Manginangina Forest. New Zealand is famous for its Kauri trees which grow extremely straight and produce valuable sap and wood. This particular forest walk was built for the queen's visit back in the 90s. It's about a kilometer-long walk through the forest, which displays Kauri trees that are upwards of 750 years old. It took several months and heaps of labor to build and apparently, when she arrived, she walked onto the first platform, said "Very nice" and went back to the car... People weren't too happy about the whole thing for some reason.

This is a picture of our Dutch friend, Joyce, and a French guy who never quite seemed able to follow directions... Anyways, the Kauri trees were quite interesting and now they've been so exploited for their products that now people aren't allowed to cut them down. Commerically-usable Kauri wood today is extracted from swamps and have been dated to be up to 60,000 years old.

We then drove to the famous 90-Mile Beach. I thought that we were mearly going to drive into a carpark and walk the beach for a bit, but was I wrong. Notice the speed limit sign at the beach's entrance:

It turns out that if you're vehicle can drive on the beach, you're allowed to drive it. And drive it we did. I think that we drove about 80% of the beach's length. So, while it was quite interesting, after awhile, you would look to one side and see the water and then at the dunes without the same initial wonder.

However, we did spot a wild baby seal and at one point our driver said, "This is an area where wild horses like to come down to the water from the dunes" and veered hard to the right, drove up an old creek bed and soon we were being thrown around in the bus while he drove over what felt like a sand mogel field. I had the fleeting thought at that point that this was probably not the most subtle way to see horses in their native environment, but I think it was as much for the horses as it was for showing off what the truck could do. Can't blame him, I suppose, he does do that drive every day.

90-Mile Beach, it turns out, isn't actually 90 miles long. Apparently, it was believed that cattle could walk 30 miles in one day and when the farmers would drive their herd along the beach, it would take them 3 days to walk it; thus 90 miles. It turns out that it's only 64 miles long. So, do they change the name? Nope and for good reason. The Kiwis' arch reveal, Aus, has an 80-Mile Beach and of course, we can't be out done by them in everything! However, it also turns out that Aus' beach is only 72 miles long, but what does actual distance have to do with national pride, eh?

Once reaching the end of the beach, we drove up another creek bed and went into the dunes. We piled out of the truck and after being handed boogey boards, hiked up a HUGE (in my opinion) dune to do some sand surfing. It was an awesome experience, but once was definitely enough as far as my calves were concerned. The guys, however, were pretty much circling Ashleigh and I was we trekked up the dune. I think they each went 4-5 times.

We then drove to Cape Reigna, which is the end of all things New Zealand. It was a really clear day, so you could see for what felt like miles. One unique feature were these cresting waves several hundred meters off shore. I asked our guide and he said that that's where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean tides are meeting. Cool, right?

We later went to get Fish 'n Chips from the "world famous" Mangonui Fish Shop, where they serve fish that is less than 3 hours out of the ocean. It was delicious to say the least. Finally being dropped of at the Hostel, Ashleigh and I toured the town for a bit and booked a water tour for the next day before crashing in our beds.