Kiwi Experience - The Finale!

So it's over - I'm home!!! But before I do a few summing-up posts I need to quickly share the happenings of my final week in New Zealand. you may not like to hear it but I spent the final week on a sub-tropical beach unfortunately - terrible I know! :P
I spent the last week up in the Bay of Islands (Paihia) and at Cape Reinga right up at the tip-top of the country where the weather is HOT HOT HOT :) (a bit too hot if you ask me but hey, I shouldn't complain lol!) :P

So here are some photos from the last week...

Paihia - The Bay of Islands, AKA Paradise :)

The hostel I was in had free kayaks to borrow, so one morning myself and a friend went for a paddle on this lovely scene, around a few islands for a couple of hours, and back for brekkie - no-one else around apart from a few ferries to nearly run over us lol!
(unfortunately no photos from actually kayaking as I wanted to enjoy myself not worry about getting my camera wet)

Cape Reinga Day Trip - perfect weather, visit to the cape, sand-boarding, driving 90 mile beach, swimming in both oceans (Pacific and Tasman Sea) within an hour of each other, freshly caught fish and chip dinner (or as the Kiwi's would say 'Fush and Chups'!!) - All in all a LOVELY day!

Cape Reinga

Where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet - you can actually see the two currents meet :)

Sand-boarding - Amazing fun! (But not quite good enough to make walking up that sand dune worth it more than a couple of times lol!)

90 Mile Beach - Officially 'State Highway 1' !!! (And before you ask it's not actually 90 miles long, its 64 miles long due to some miscalculation way back when!)

Waitangi Day (6th Feb) - New Zealand National Holiday celebrating the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the Maori and the British.
Waitangi is just up the beach from Paihia where I was staying so I was in the right place for all the Maori celebrations, the presence of the Prime Minister and a few protests and debates (common at this event).
The show was good though - lots of traditional long boat displays and The Huka en Mass!

So that concludes the trip! I am now HOME both physically and metaphorically and suffering hugely from jet lag after a 28 hour flight lol! Turns out I only took 3 1/2 thousand photos in 9 weeks - that is actually not a lot for a member of my family!!!

There will be a few blogs coming up in conclusion of my trip, I have A LOT to be thankful for! :)

But for now, that's it - thank you for reading!!! I have been informed that more of you were reading these than actually told me :)

Please just know that if you ask me how my trip was, I will probably direct you to the blog for now. 9 weeks is a lot to sum up in a few sentences lol! For now let's just say it was AMAZING and everything I hoped it would be, but I'm VERY VERY glad to be home to my Fiancé - I missed him quite a bit :P :)