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netGallery > Jon and Sarah > World_Tour_2006 > New Zealand > Bay of Islands and Cape Regina

Bay of Islands and Cape Regina

New Zealand

March 2007

BAY OF ISLANDS AND CAPE REGINA

We arrived at the Bay of Islands on a beautiful sunny day, which was lucky as it was now summers end. We were glad to see that its name was no lie and from the coastal road we had a magnificent view of the area, golden beaches and the many small pieces of land sticking up from the ocean.

We took the popular boat cruise out to see the shark fin rock, hole in the rock and the point where Captain James Cook landed. The area was once home to European settlers who made a living trading kauri timber and gum. Today the money comes from tourism, dairy and yep you guessed it, sheep!

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Cape Regina is New Zealand’s most northerly point, at the tip of the North Island. So wanting to do things right we vowed to visit there, and Bluff the lowest point in the South Island… Take our word for it when we say its much like Lands End in the UK, and its rather dull. There’s just a lighthouse and a signpost, nothing more. Quite disappointing after hours and hours of driving up a windy gravel road. In fact it was barely visible, as a low fog had rolled in from the ocean. Lets hope Bluff is more exciting, when we travel the 1452KM, or so the signpost tells us!!

On our way south we see a sign for sand boarding and cannot resist a go. Huge sand dunes nestled between the sea and a mini jungle look so bizarre. We hire two belly boards and use all our strength staggering up these very high and steep mounds. Its an exhilarating buzz to ride the board down but we only did it once as we couldn’t face the long climb back up again.

Then we took our camper down to the start of the 90-mile beach, which is the longest beach in NZ. Hire vehicles are banned from driving up this stretch but you can get a large bus tour or 4x4 adventure. Here we saw probably the most stylish caravan you’ll ever lay eyes on. Very classy indeed. (See photos). As we were leaving we saw some dopey tourist get their hire car stuck on the beach and were lucky a couple of muscle bound surfers helped them dig it out.