This weekend, Bobbi and I rented a car and headed "up north" for the weekend. When we first arrived at the juicy rental, we drove around a little bit before taking off because I wanted to get used to driving on the left side of the road. After getting lost in the continuous city we headed off with no plan and no real expectations in site. We stopped at some beaches along the way and ended up in a garden that preserves and restores wildlife and the natural beauty of new zealand. The sign said that there were kiwi birds around the garden so we stopped because we were determined to see a kiwi in the wild. Unfortunately, we did not run into any, but spent a lot of time roaming around in awe of the tropical view. We also pulled over to a waterfall and explored around the area, walking all the way behind the waterfall were I managed to slip into the mud
After eating lunch and coming to the realization that food in New Zealand is very expensive no matter where you are, or what you eat, we continued on our journey. We stopped at a glow worm cave which is a native worm in New Zealand that glows in caves. Bobbi and I were the only two people on the tour so we got a full tour and probably drove the tour guide crazy with how many questions we asked. Glow worms work like a fishing line, they are long worm like creatures that have a couple of strings that hang off their bodies and dangle in the air acting like multiple fishing lines. The worms use the "lines" to catch their food but on one of the "lines" it lights up to attract the bugs in the dark cave. There were thousands of worms lined throughout the cave, it reminded me of twinkling lights in the dead of night during the summer. The tour guide also showed us the family of eels in the caves and even got the chance to pet one of them.
We then hopped back in the car and drove to 90 mile beach. It is a beach that extends for 90 miles that stretches across the east coast of the peninsula. When we pulled up, there were a couple of teenagers that were doing burnouts in their car on the beach since the tide was so low. We tried to dip our toes in the water, but it was still too cold for us to go full body swimming.
After deciding the wind was a bit too cold for us, we finished our journey to the top. Before we made it to the top we were running on empty and after much searching we found a gas station in the middle of nowhere. There is not much inhabitation and it is very desolite the closer you get to the edge of the country, spotting only cattle and sheep in site. When we pulled into the gas station, none of our cards worked and the gas station was closed so we couldn't use cash to pay, on top of all that, we didn't have any signal to try and see if there was anything or anyone near by to help us out. Therefore, we had no gas, no service, no useful way to pay for the gas we needed to continue, so we had to knock door to door in the nearby structure to ask for help.
Luckily after awhile a kiwi came to the rescue, we made it to the northernmost point in New Zealand and the rolling green hills and mountains with sheep grazing the scene and beaches on both sides of the road was a view I will never forget, no words would be able to describe the beauty. When we walked to the lighthouse that marked the location, the two bodies of water that are on either side of the country converged together and created a natural whirlpool in the water. We were the only people at the lighthouse, the sun was setting, the view was stunning, it was almost out of a movie how incredible everything looked.
That night we went to a nearby beach and pitched a tent to sleep. Bobbi had never been camping before so I was excited to experience it with her.
That night the winds were very strong and since we were so close to the beach the waves were crashing and making the tent blow so much the tent was literally blowing in our face and on our bodies. After about an hour, we decided to just pack it up since I was nervous the poles in my tent were going to break and we slept in the car, not exactly the first experience I wanted for Bobbi to camp in.
In the morning, we woke up and looked out the window to see that it has rained hard last night with leaves, branches and waves crashing. We headed out right away since we didn't have anything to pack up, we drove back and stopped at more beaches and waterfalls on the way home. We had McDonalds for the first time since coming over, since we hadnt eaten in almost 24 hours, and compared their food to the McDonalds in the states. Their cookies, ice cream, and eggs taste much different, needless to say we had a taste testing experiment and received lots of stares, but we were two hungry girls!
After a full day, 10 hours of driving, exploring, stopping, we made it home and were quite exhausted and ready to take a shower! We made it back in one piece and the car didnt have a scratch on it!
