The end of the world

Paihia is located about half-way between Auckland and the very northern tip of New Zealand, Cape Reinga, so I decided to take a day trip up there with Awesome Adventures, I really like that name.

Heading north we first stopped off at an ancient Kauri forest. The trees here are roughly 4,000 years old and used to cover the entire region and much of NZ until England decided that the trees would make lovely boats, houses, etc. and decided to cut them all down leaving 2-3% of the original population remaining. Hooray imperialism! The forest was pretty cool, but in the end they were just really big trees to look at...I prefer mountains.

Further north we left all signs of society behind and made it to the furthest northern point in NZ. Here the Tasman Sea meets up with the Pacific Ocean to create big waves and a lot of wind. At the point at Cape Reinga is a light house surrounded by large forested hills. I don't know what it was about the area, but it felt to me like the end of the world, that I was looking out into vast ocean where there was complete nothingness. It was an odd feeling because I've sat on oceans and beaches and looked out to see nothing before, but the area felt extremely desolute, void of life outside of the forest and at world's end. This was despite the fact that we drove here on an unpaved road and I knew exactly how far from civilization we were, about 100 miles. But it had an odd, yet awesome, feeling to it.

After the lighthouse came the highlight of the trip.....sand boarding. Essentially the same thing as sledding but on sand. You grab a sand board, climb a sand dune, sit on top and push off then go wizzing down. The first run was a bit nerve racking, the dunes after all are big and you do pick up a lot of speed. If done properly in the best conditions you can hit 60mph on the dune we were heading down, at first we were probably only going about 30mph down it. At the end of the sand dune is obviously the steepest part that then goes to a completely flat area that is covered with a thin layer of water, essentially a really wide stream, that you slide out onto. Well, my first go didn't go well. I made it to the flat part just fine, then hit it, got knocked around a bit, my sand board stopped but I didn't. It was pretty much the coolest slip n' slide I'd ever been on as I went sliding out like superman across the ground. It was pretty awesome, minus my pants sliding off and me mooning the people on top of the dune.

The next few runs were a bit more intense. Instead of sitting down on top and pushing off we got the courage for a running and jumping start. It started off slow, just a step then jump, then gradually progressed to an all out sprint and huge leap over the lip of the dune. After the first run I even managed to stay on the board when I hit stream below and went out really far across the water...until the last run. I knew it was the last run of the day so I really went for it, ran, jumped and started going down. I was flying, I don't know how fast it was but I'm guessing somewhere around 50mph. When I got to the steep part at the end instead of smoothly going down it, I got some air. Upon landing my face slammed into the sand board, it stopped and I get sliding. I don't exactly know what happened or what it looked like but it felt like I took an upper-cut to the face and somehow managed to mangle my wrist so that it didn't like being twisted for the rest of the day. It was awesome though.

From the dunes we drove down New Zealands oldest and newest highway, 90 mile beach (the highway is literally on the beach). It is the oldest highway in NZ and probably the world because the beach has been there for thousands of years, but it is also the newest because it gets re "paved" everyday when the tide comes in and then goes out leaving a new layer of sand. The beach is named 90 mile beach for pretty much no reason, it is not 90 miles from anything nor is it 90 miles wrong, the founders of the beach just named it wrong. The drive down the beach was relaxing and gorgeous. We stopped off a few times to play some touch rugby and eat some shellfish before heading back down the coast to Paihia.