I’ve started this post on the eve before I fly home to Canada from New Zealand. I’ve spent three months in Australia and one in New Zealand and while I’m excited to head home to my car, my family and my bed, I’m sad this trip is coming to an end.

Having only driven and flown to a few place in North America previous to this trip, I didn’t have much experience in overseas extended travel. I was about as green as they come when I landed in Sydney four months ago. Scared, excited and completely unaware of all the intricacies of travel, it took a while to figure everything out and become comfortable with it. Luckily I had arranged to meet a friend in Sydney when I got there so I wasn’t totally alone. After that I hadn’t  planned anything.

I’m normally someone who likes to have things planned. It makes everything smoother and puts my mind at ease when I know 3 days from now where I’ll be and what I’m doing. I’m also very lazy. I don’t like to plan much because it is work. It requires reading, emailing, money and time. After reading so much on ditching the guide books and just do what comes up, I decided to give it a shot. I was in Australia and New Zealand during the winter, or low season, and I wasn’t too worried about booking.

My last minute plans were only disrupted a few times. The vast majority of the time I rocked up to whatever town I could find along the way and went with whatever happened. I don’t recommend this way if you are on a tight schedule or absolutely have to stay at a certain place or do a particular activity but for me it worked well.

Instead of driving around New Zealand like I did Australia, I switched it up a bit. I booked the best “hop on, hop off” bus I could find in New Zealand, the Magic Bus. What resulted was a very different trip than in Australia but one that I’m very fond of. Thinking back now, I had a better time in New Zealand because of the adventures and people I met on the bus.

Back at home, I still second guess myself on which way I should look when crossing traffic. I highly recommend driving when there are other people on the road so you can follow them.

If anyone has any questions or comments about the trip, please let me know in the comments down below!

Duneboarding in New Zealand

Back in Auckland from my whirlwind trip around New Zealand, I was thankful to have a day or 2 rest before hopping on the plane and heading home.

I just had one more trip to do up to Cape Reinga, the top of New Zealand.

Because of the way the bus schedule worked we would head up to Paihia the first day, do a day trip to the cape the second, and then have a day to relax on the third.

I was expecting this part of the trip to be pretty slow and just a scenic drive up to the cape and back. We got to Paihia and went on a cruise out to the “Hole in the Rock”.  It’s basically a massive hole in one of the rocks that you can drive through with your boat as long as the water isn’t too high. Unfortunately our boat was a little big and the water too high so we didn’t fit. We did get to see plenty of dolphins playing around the boat along the way.

I didn’t realize that we would be doing some dune boarding on the way up to the cape. I had never even seen it before and was excited to give it a try. I assumed it would be on a fairly small dune and the sleds wouldn’t go very fast.

Just getting to the dunes was a bit of an adventure. Right on 90-mile beach, the dunes rise up off the beach and are bigger than I thought. The road ends abruptly and turns into a stream that heads down to the beach. That didn’t stop the bus driver. He slowed a little to make sure we were in the right gear and then plowed on through the river.

Careful not to stop in the gooey sand he showed us the smaller dunes the “Oldies” would be sliding down. There were a few buses hitting the dunes that day and a couple were primarily an older crowd. He quickly hauled the bus around so were facing a much larger dune with wind whipping up sand over the top. We’d be climbing that.

Our guide and bus driver had an incredible amount of energy and as soon as everyone had a board set about explaining how we were supposed to do this without breaking our necks.

He flops down in the mud by the stream and explains where to put your arms, feet, body and how to stop. Then he hops up and starts to run up the sand dune.

It wasn’t small. And sand is about as hard to hike up as snow, minus the cold. 2 steps up, 1 step back.

Near the top, I couldn’t wait to rest to catch a breath but had to get right to do the top ridge to do it. Stop before and you’ll be assaulted by sand whipping over the top of the dune and down the other side.

Finally we make it to the top. Myself and a Finnish fellow named Antti made it to the top first after the guide and we hurry over to where we’re supposed to slide down.

The first run was fun but I wasn’t sure how fast or far I would go so I dragged my feet a little.  Wicked. Now that I know what it’s like time to hurl myself down the hill.  I trudge all the way back up to the top of the dune hop in line. Once we’ve gone once and know what to expect we’re allowed to cut the line and go further down the dune. Antti and I rush over past the rest of the wide-eyed first timers and rip down the dune a second time.

I pretty much laughed the whole way down. It’s like sliding down a huge hill on a sled in the snow but nice and warm. Aside from all the sand getting into my ears, eyes, mouth and nose it was a wicked ride.

Antti and I managed to get up the dune 3 more times and got a little further each time. The stream went along the bottom of the dune so if you were going fast enough you’d go right over the stream into the swamp beyond. I didn’t quite make it into the swamp but did get onto a little island in the middle of the stream. The last 2 times we raced a couple other people all the way down.

We hit up a beautiful beach on the way out of the dunes and hopped in the water to get rid of all the sand. Even after the swim and a shower later, I still was finding sand everywhere. It was a small price to pay for an awesome trip to the sand dunes.

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