Feel a little hungover from our Russell two bottle extravaganza, we stumbled over to the Paihia wharf to catch our 7:20 bus up North. We were on the Dune Rider 4x4 90 Mile Beach Trip, and our bus driver was "Spike" - a local guy who used to be a teacher but quit because he loved doing these trips so much. He spoke Mauri and knew an incredible amount about the local flora and fauna as well as local knowledge.

Our bus was pretty full, with a few selfish backpackers taking all of the window seats, a local family, an oriental family with cute kids and some nice Canadian ladies. And us cool brits on the back seats, of course! The trip constituted lots of interesting stops:

Puketi Forest. Some nice kauris and interesting stuff on the use of kauri gum and how it kills the trees. It was nice to look round the forest while it was still cool and wasn't humid.

90 Mile Beach! The air was clear on our day, and the driving was fun. Spike told us lots about all the birds, and he knew what to when a penguin or albatross needed saving, by giving "his friend" Robert Webb a call at the Whangarei Bird Recovery Centre. We like Robert too!

Tuatua Foraging. This was a nice pre-lunch break digging up shells in the shallow water (look for the gulls!) You need to split them open and then eat them raw! Yum! One of our Canadian friends won quote of the day with "Urgh, that's not for me... I prefer my food absolutely fresh from a restaurant..." Silly bint. These are as fresh as they come!

Dune Riding. Go Mama J! After a crazy drive up the creek at the end of beach we stopped at some of the ~100m dunes. Dune riding was fun and Mum got lots of qudos from Spike after she went up for a second run! Scott got further than two bus loads of tourists on all three of his runs, and even pushed Spike out of top spot! Woo-hoo! No free fish and chips this time though - boo!

Cape Reinga. Cape Reinga is a beautiful, sacred spot. Maori legend has it that your spirit comes here when you die before heading North out to sea to one of the King Islands. You could see where the waves of the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea had met and built up a large sand bar. The waves were visibly confused (phyiscs term) generating a cross-hatch effect. The light house really sets the scene - top of the land!

Lunch Stop. We had lunch at a beach just round the corner from the cape. This is to adhere to the Mauri beliefs that you shouldn't eat at the cape. We went for a great swim in the crystal clear waters, and played in the huge surf.

Ancient Swamp Kauri. We stopped next at the Ancient Kauri Kingdom where they have loads of amazing bog kauri that's 30,000 - 45,000 years old! There's a phenomonal stair case cut right up the trunk of a massive old kauri, and loads of cool furniture. The unpolished wood is about 10% of the price, so we might just pick up a table top on the way home... I also realised this where I bought Claire her first pink mussel shell ear-rings in 2000.

Mangonui Fish & Chips. Our final stop was at Mangonui ("Big Shark") for some excellent, cheap fish and chips and some cool, expensive drinks.

We finally got dropped off at about 7pm feeling a bit bone-rattled and tired. I was feeling totally cooked and went straight to the sanctuary of shade. Mum and Claire went for supplies and we had a leisurely time in the hot pool sipping wine.