Kia ora New Zealand- First stop Auckland

We arrived into Aotearoa, Land of the Long White Cloud (AKA New Zealand), in the North Island and into the country's largest city - Auckland.  We caught the shuttle bus from the airport down to the centre of town, and our hostel was situated just around the corner.  It was a pretty cool Nomads hostel, with a rooftop hot tub and a nice
bar.

We shared our dorm with a good group of people.  There was Jack, a former New Zealand's Got Talent contestant from the world's most southerly city, Invercargill, plus three Londoners, Katie, Manu and Matt.  We had a couple of nights out them, where we played drinking games in our room before hitting the Auckland bars!

After a couple of days in the City, we caught a bus to Paihia in the Bay of Islands in the very north of New Zealand.  From there, we went up to Cape Reinga, which is (almost) the most northerly point of New Zealand.  We walked up to the lighthouse there, where we were able to see the Tasman Sea meeting the Pacific Ocean, causing unsettled waters and a noticeable difference in the colour of each sea.

Our bus travelled along 90 Mile Beach - a beach highway, similar to the one we travelled on in Fraser Island.  We stopped along the beach and dug up some cockles to each fresh from the beach! 

After our snack, our bus took us along the beach to some huge sand dunes, where we had an awesome time sandboarding!

The next day, we got a ferry across from Paihia to Russell, which was a really nice little beach town.  We stayed here all morning before getting the ferry back to Paihia and then a bus back to Auckland. 

On our last day in Auckland, we visited the Sky Tower, which had amazing views of the city.