Kayaking with a Canadian in New Zealand

Trip Start Jan 05, 2009
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Trip End Jun 20, 2009


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Where I stayed
In our car
(Paihia hotels)

Flag of New Zealand  , North Island,
Thursday, January 8, 2009

We got up early and had a quick breakfast then headed to the kayaking hut with our one roommate Iain. We found out that our kayaking guide Adam was from Belleville, Ontario. We kayaked in this area that was breathtaking! The wildlife was beautiful. There were birds that had the bodies of seagulls but the heads of ducks, and these really cute Oyster Eaters. We continued along our route when we stopped to talk about the Shag Bird. It was this really neat bird that had blue eyes and a little bit of yellow in the corner of its eyes closer to the beak. As we pressed on I was gliding by this log that actually had the Shag bird on it and I stopped paddling altogether and without a word of a lie I was no less than 2 m away from the bird. And it didn't fly away until I was past it. It was just a remarkable experience. As we went on we learned that these birds don't have an oil gland so they actually have to sun-dry themselves. So we passed a group of rocks along the shore that had 3 or more birds which were just sunning themselves. It was really neat.
We ended up at a place where we saw this really nice waterfall, we stopped near by to have a cup of tea and a cookie and then we headed back. On the way back we learned about these really beautiful Mangrove Trees. They have a really awesome root system and they are a canopy tree that survives next to the shore of salt water supplies. It was really awesome. That's my favourite part of these things. Learning about the natural elements that you would not otherwise see or experience first hand.
Once we headed back to our hostel to drop Iain off he let us use the showering facilities before heading to check our emails and then head up to the Bay of Islands to climb Mt. Puheke and take some pictures from up there. The estimated time to get there was 45 mins (this was OUR estimated time) however, with Jenn driving and me navigating, it took us about 2 and a half hours and at least 3 U-turns. We eventually found our way to the beach where we asked for further instructions on where to go to climb up, but no one had any idea. We decided to do a little off roading and eventually we found it. Thankfully, walking up the tall grass and bush route to the top of the small mountain we were in New Zealand, which has basically no deadly creepies or crawlies. We weren't attacked and we found the view from the top to be unbelievable and completely worth the journey it took to get there. We looked out over the white beaches of Rangaunu Bay and Cape Karikari and saw the Maturoa Island. It was just beautiful.
We headed back down closer to Auckland because we booked a 2 hour horseback riding for the following morning along the beach in a small town about an hour outside of the city. The ride was a LONG and tiring 3.5 hours and the roads are nuts so it took some serious talking and singing to keep awake.
We managed to get to Pakiri and found a parking spot near the beach and slept in the car that night.
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