Northland - Opononi/Kauri Forests/Waiwera

Flying Kiwi: Wednesday 16.01.08

We left camp at 8:30, and headed to Opononi, home of Opo the Friendly Dolphin. Apparently in the 50s, there used to be a dolphin that swam in the bay with the children of the town before it was cruelly shot by an unknown assassin. He is buried there now, and there was a statue of him erected in loving memory.

There we took a boat shuttle across the bay to the large sand dunes to go sandboarding! It's pretty simple: you carry a boogie/body board to the top of the dune, and basically slide down toward the water. If you started on a dune high enough or didn't brake at all on the way down with your feet, the boogie board would also carry you into the bay, splashing as the board skidded over the surface of the water. It was good fun, but tiring to walk up the dune, and the thrill of it wore off pretty quickly for Sam and me. I also do think that the amount of fun you have depends on the people that you're with, and unfortunately, Sam and I hadn't developed any great friendships yet. If we had gone sandboarding with the people who joined our tour in Christchurch and Queenstown (about 3 weeks later), I think I would have had a better time. Oh well. Can't say that I didn't like the sun and the sand that day.

The bus continued it's drive through the Northland region, and we stopped to do a quick 15 minute walk through the Kauri Forests. There was a single kauri tree that was absolutely gigantic. The interesting thing is that the plants that surround these trees have unusually shallow roots, and just stepping on them could destroy the plantlife in those forests. The kauri trees are venerated by Maori as being sacred, called "Tane Matua" ("God of the Forest") or"Te Matua" ("Father of the Forest"). There's also some Maori story about these trees, but I don't remember it now, so I'll have to look it up later. Apparently these trees are the world's largest trees after the Californian Sequoias. Impressive, eh? During the English settlement of New Zealand, these trees were in danger of extinction, and now they are protected by the government. During our quick walk we were lucky enough to see a local guide sing a sacred Maori hymn to the tree.

That night we camped in a holiday park/campsite in Waiwera, which happened to be right next door to the hot pools. With our Flying Kiwi discount - only $10 NZD - we relaxed in the spas after dinner. Funnily enough they also had slides (also in warm water). Sam and I decided to go on just one: the Black Hole. I didn't see the light at the end of it until it was too late - it an was alarmingly fast slide - and I plunged into the pool before I had a chance to register what was happening. There was also a "movie pool" where there was a large screen tv - unfortunately, they weren't showing movies but just tv shows on the local channel. A bit of a disappointment there. But all in all, good fun getting to know the people in our tour group.

Last (and totally random) note: around our camp area there was a little boy who kept showing up around our site - very odd. He became more familiar with us as people started chatting with him. He wanted so badly to impress us - you could tell - that he brought out this awesome Optimus Prime helmet, with voice modulator and everything, haha. I guess he was kinda cute, but clearly craving for attention, and when we left the next morning, he got all upset and couldn't stop saying "bye" as we waited for the bus to go.

As for pictures, I have so many I'm in the process of uploading them all onto pbase for the next several days. Unfortunately, I seem to be doing them all in the wrong order, so it seems like none of the pictures that I need for this blog are up yet. Sorry!

Nix that: it turns out that almost all the photos from the first half of the trip are gone! This stupid computer thought my USB drive (where I'd stored my photos to free up my SD card) had a virus on it and proceeded to delete everything on it! Why oh why!! ARGH. If I was one to swear, I'd use one now. =[

P.S. This daily blogging is getting hard to do, because I'm editing my journal entries to make them more enjoyable and coherent, all after a full day's work at the packhouse. I probably won't update daily, although I'll try to do so as much as possible.