Kerikeri, Cape Reinga, Sand Dunes, 90 Mile Beach and Kiwis!

Our first day in Kerikeri, we decided to do a beach tour.  The weather wasn't completely on our side as it started to rain shortly after we arrived at our first beach, but the views from our wee tour were truly fantastic!

After we drove up the coast and visited a few beaches, we stopped at the Mangonui World Famous Fish Shop that was on a pier sitting in the ocean.  The site was fitting and the food was excellent!  Although... they didn't have any donuts :( 

We got back to the campsite in the early afternoon and decided to do a little food shopping and site seeing in the town before dinner.  The town is about 5 minutes long - yes, that's how long it takes to drive down the main street going slowly.  New Zealand towns tend to be rather small.  You could blink and miss one if you're not careful.  Regardless, we found a cool pottery/art shop that we browsed in for a while.  But the smaller towns tend to close down about 4 or 5pm so we returned to the campsite, had dinner, played some games and hit the sack.

The next day we were up bright and early (read 8:30am) and on the road.  We drove all the way up to the tippy top of the north island: Cape Reinga.  The weather wasn't rainy, but it was a bit foggy/cloudy so our view at the northern tip was limited yet stunning.  We took pictures at the lighthouse and the directions sign.  Lorena was quite happy to see Los Angeles listed there.  I just want to know why NYC isn't listed?!
We walked up the hill and took pictures on the edge...
Then we hiked down to another hill that was a bit closer to the beach.  We tried to get pictures of us on the hill.  Even though it was cloudy, the sun was rather bright and some people (ahemtoddgraham) had problems looking up and opening their eyes...

it was also hard trying to get everyone in the picture...

Back in the car, we started driving south again and pulled over at the giant sand dunes.  So. Cool.

People were sledding down the dunes on beach boogie boards and it looked like a blast.  It also looks a lot steeper when you're at the top getting ready to sled down, head first of course.  We sat at the top and watched several people sled down.  Here's one video from the top...

And here's another video of Graham, Vanessa and I.  We borrowed some boogie boards from some other very nice tourists and climbed back up the big sand dune so we could sled down it.  SO MUCH FUN!!!

  Back in the car again, we kept driving south, and stopped again at 90 Mile Beach.

i love that you can rent a Wicked camper...vanessa does too :)

The sun had come out and it was a lovely day so Graham, Lorena and I got to go swimming!  I tried to teach Lorena how to body surf, but it's been a really long time for me too!  So, we just floundered in the waves a bit with Lorena's waterproof camera.

Vanessa and Laura and I tried to be synchronized cartwheelers...

we weren't exactly successful at the synchronized part...

 Lorena and I tried to relive one of our college ballroom team trips to San Diego...

Back in the car once more, we continued our drive south and back to our campsite, but we had one more stop to make.  Vanessa and Laura's co-worker, Tanya, camps with her family just north of Kerikeri on the ocean, and wild Kiwi birds run rampant around their campsite.  We wanted to see these birds in the wild so we went to go visit them.  Despite the fact that we thought we were already in BFE, we kept driving further and further into nowhere.  We passed paddock after paddock with fewer and fewer houses in between and, naturally, got a little lost.  When we finally met up with Tanya and her sister, they split up into our two cars and directed us into sheep paddocks where we drove up and down and across slightly treacherous looking hills and rough sheep trodden land... in the dark where we couldn't quite see where we were going.  Vanessa's car couldn't quite make it all the way, so we abandoned our cars in the middle of a paddock and walked the rest of the way, trying very hard to avoid the multitude of sheep/cow poo piles.  Their campsite was right on the ocean, at the bottom of a hill and surrounded by the hill so it was nice and sheltered.  We all sat at the picnic table and talked and periodically scanned the hill with a crazy intense flashlight...and we saw kiwis!!  The were running along the ridges of the hill and we followed them with the light.  They're rather funny looking in real life, and rather large!  They look all cute and tiny in all the tourist souvenir depictions, but they're about chicken size.  Still cute though.  On our way back up the hill, we stopped here and there to scan again and we actually saw one about 20 feet away from us!  Here's my iPhone pic... you can kinda see it!

he's facing right - you can barely see his beak

After all that excitement, we made it safely out of the sheep paddocks in the dark without hitting any sheep, busting any tires, or scraping the undercarriages of the cars too badly.  Good times, but a long day!!