Words can not describe how beautiful this country is, after awhile you think you'd get immune but then you turn a corner and something else takes you by surprise! Our bus driver (Otto....no joke and just a crazy) took us along 90 mile beach, you're not allowed to swim on the beach because the surf is too rough and the undertow would drag you over to Chile but just walking around was quite an experience. There's nothing but sand as far as you can see. After that it was time for a little sandboarding. At the very top of the beach are these massive dunes and you are basically handed a surf board and can go nuts. All the guys try and see how fast they can go because if you pick up enough speed you can actually go past the bottom into the bushes. The only problem is that you steer with your toes in the sand which slows you down so the trick is to kind of lean the way you want to go. That also doesn't work all the time either, on my third run I was trying to do the whole thing without breaking and got going so fast that I caught a bit of air going over one of the ridges and got thrown forward. I landed on my side and honestly it was like wiping out on sandpaper!!!
Once I finished picking sand out of my ass for an hour we headed up to the actual cape which is marked by a lighthouse. The whole area is very sacred to the Maori natives and marks the spot where the two ocean's meet. This is the type of place where you can look out into the ocean for hours and just let your mind wander. After a while it was time to head home and our last stop was a little fish and chips shop before heading back to the Bay of Islands and then Auckland.
After a quick stop in Auckland it was onto Mercury Bay for a night. On the way to Mercury Bay we stopped off at Cathedral Cove which is the most breathtaking beach I have ever seen!! It's about a 40 minute walk from the road but the hike is worth it. The whole beach is divided up by a massive cave flows with the ocean water during high tide. We even saw a penguin swimming along the bank that made me unable to form words for a full 30 seconds.....me!! Not knowing what to say!! I know!!!!
