Sydney Tour

Today we took an open top bus tour of Sydney - here's just one of the amazing views - and visited the Maritime Museum. They have a replica of the ship used by Cpt Cook when he took his 3 year expedition to claim and map Australia (then called New Holland) and New Zealand. The replica has been equipped for modern-day sailing and has already been twice around the world. You'd need a strong stomach, though, it was rolling quite enough even just anchored in the harbour!

Hopped over to Oz

Well, after much thought and deliberation we decided to spend our final three weeks somewhere warm and sunny. So we've hopped over to eastern Australia for a roadtrip from Sydney to Brisbane - from Auckland it's the equivalent of going to Spain - 3.30mins flight at just over £100 each - bargain! We arrived to glorious sunshine and took a guided tour of the Opera House, all of us totally awestruck, it is so much better in the flesh!

We looked at the Sydney Harbour Bridge and saw ant-size groups on the top - people taking the over-bridge tour! Look closely you can see them...

Beware Trains!

On the way back down to Auckland, we passed a small town called Kawakawa. We thought nothing of the “beware, trains, 1km” sign, although the 1km puzzled us a bit. Alarmed or manual railway crossings are quite common here. But then, look what we saw coming down the high street of the town!!!

Giant Kauri

Thanks to the highly efficient logging industry in the 19th century, there are very few ancient Kauri trees left in the forests, so we took a detour to see the largest remaining living tree. It’s about 2000 years old and huge – Kauris are second only in size to the sequoia. If you look closely, you’ll see Tim and Emma just visible through the bush.

North of the North

The most northerly part of our tour is to Cape Reinga, a lighthouse and at the very tip the Pahutakawa Tree through which Maori souls are said to pass into the sea as they journey up Ninety Mile Beach.

This is the point at which the Tasmin Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, and the swell out to sea was testimony to this – on a stormy day it’s supposed to be quite something. We were treated to beautiful weather for this most northerly venture in New Zealand. Our friends told us we must get an ice-cream at this little shop up here – this, believe it or not is a single scoop for a whopping two dollars (about 80p).

90 Mile Beach

Our next stop is Ninety Mile Beach. As the road this far north is not all surfaced, the smoothest ride we’re told is driving up the beach itself, which is a highway and is patrolled by the police (the coach driver told us they keep their fishing rods on the roof!). Unless you have a knowledge of sands & tides and a 4x4, drivers are advised not to drive on the beach so we took a coach tour. We drove right up to the top of the beach, on such a huge scale that it doesn’t photograph at all well. Half way up we stopped to say hello to a Sealion (in NZ they call them Fur Seals) basking in the surf. At the top we drove up a creek to re-join the road, but not before we stopped to toboggan down the massive sand dunes – here’s Em on her way down! No, really!

Waitangi

On our penultimate excursion in New Zealand before the next leg of our journey, we took a 3 day tour of ‘Northland’ – the peninsula to the north of Auckland. Our first stop was Waitangi, a famous spot where treaties were signed between English and Maori representatives in the 19th century. Pictured is the elaborately carved interior of the ceremonial Maori Meeting House on the site.

Mount Maunganui

Close to the kiwi farm at Te Puke is an extinct volcanic cone called Mount Maunganui sitting on a peninsula at the end of the beach. A stunning location, we took the afternoon to walk the circumference with sea views from all sides. Had the weather been kinder we could have taken a boat trip out to White Island, the most active volcano in New Zealand.