Throughout the time we’ve been planning our trip to New Zealand, there’s been something pretty special about telling people we were going to work our way up to the very top, right down to the bottom, and then back up the country. Unfortunately, it turns out that Cape Reinga is not the the most northern tip of New Zealand but it was close enough (we could see the tip from where we were), especially after an almost 500km round day trip.
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My first impressions of Paihia were that it was very much a tourist town and I’ll admit, I started to wonder if we were right to spend four nights there. The beach didn’t look as good as I expected and the town was very small and filled with souvenir shops. However, by the end of the four nights I was ready to leave but didn’t feel like we’d wasted our time there. In fact, we managed to cram quite a bit in including my highlight of the trip so far.
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If you’re going to Auckland for any length of time, break up your time in the city with a trip to Waiheke Island. It’s only a half hour ferry ride away so makes for a very easy day trip, but we stayed overnight and fell in love with this little island paradise. The ferry ride over is a great way to see Auckland from a distance and we stopped off at Davenport on the way which had much more colonial style buildings. We also passed Rangitoto, a volcano which you can walk up and apparently has fantastic views from the top.
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Auckland is a city best seen from a distance. From the air you can see both harbours and how far the city sprawls in all directions. From the sea you can see some of the cities volcanoes standing tall above the rest of the city, with the exception of the sky tower which appears to pierce the clouds. Whereas Hong Kong was overwhelming to begin with, Auckland was slightly underwhelming. I’m aware that I’m not really selling the city so far, but bear with me.
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Ever since I came back from interrailing for two weeks after my A-levels I have been keen on the idea of doing a big trip. Travelling round lots of different places and being away from home for a substantial amount of time appealed – but these were things I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do. For a start whilst lots of people do gap years, they seem pretty expensive and I was also worried I’d be too scared. It sounds silly but anyone who knows me will know that I worry a lot, so I thought a big trip might just be a bit beyond my reach.
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