New Zealand Travels (March 20th, 2003) 90 mile beach

"Cruised around on the bus all day (again) looking at the features of the far North, or Cape Reinga. Highlights included: the big Kauri tree; the Northernmost tip of New Zealand; a bit of dune surfing; a bus ride down 90 Mile Beach; digging for shellfish; eating fish and chips and getting home by 7:30 after sampling some local fruit.

Let me tell you about that Kauri tree: it's HUGE - I mean seriously BIG. The trunk was the width of two coaches and it towered over everything else in the forest. According to the signpost nearby it is 2000 years old so it must have been a sapling when Jesus Christ walked the earth. After seeing the tree, we headed North for ages with the scenery getting bleaker and bleaker. Everyone on the bus did the usual things: retreating into a book or sleeping. Keeping a conversation going seemed to be too much effort and I felt so tired. The lighthouse at the tip was a good photo to have, as was the confluence between the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea. (I'm building up a collection of Pacific confluences it seems). Finally, we got to what I though would be the highlight of the day - dune surfing.

Take one enormous sand dune (150m steep sided), add to this a boogie board with slightly insane rider pumped on adrenalin. Mix together for some serious entertainment. I went and down that hill 3 times before I ran out of energy. Climbing the steep sides through deep sliding sands is not fun, but the thril you get from shooting down the other side keeps you coming back for more.

The real highlight of the day came after we had zoomed down 90 Mile Beach (actually 90km is closer) for about half and hour. The driver pulled over and we all piled out to go digging for shellfish. Basically, you walk to the wave zone and dig a small pit about 5 inches deep. As the waves rush over the pit it helps to loosen the sand making it simple to pull out the shellfish. Some are too small for the pot and get thrown back in, but the ones with a yellow and black shell make good eating - even raw. (Yes, I broke one open and ate the contents - lovely). Learning something like that meant more to me than the simple tourist pleasures. Should I feel hungry on a remote beach I now know that I can find food. It has given me a small desire to learn more about living closer to the land, and also the connections between the food in the ocean and the food that ends up on the dinnerplate.

That evening I met up with Inma and Tom. Inma had got off the bus before Paihia and ended up having an entire hostel all to herself. The town as as small as it could be - it didn't event get a 1 horse rating so entertainment would ahve been tricky. Tom was a Richard Gere lookalike who was traveling to find himself in one way or another. We all had a good laugh drinking beer in the local karaoke bar, and, yes, Paul gave us another emotionally charged rendition of Delila. It was getting late, but none of us wanted to go home so we carried on to the local nightclub until 2am. So we all danced and drank and eventually rolled in home about 4am after having a good night out."