We have just been away for a couple of days to the far Far North and thought you folks might like to see some piccies.

We stayed in a motel at Kaitaia for a couple of days and took a coach tour up to Cape Reinga ? I could have driven but had been advised so many times to that it is much better to take a coach trip, so we did. There are quite a few tour companies in the area and we saw their coaches many times along the same routes. The coach picked us up at 9am and, yes it did prove to be the best way to see the area, more relaxing, and our coach driver volunteered many interesting bits of information of the places we passed and stopped at. After stopping at the Kauri Kingdom ? a souvenir shop with a difference - we went onto Ninety Mile Beach and drove north for about an hour on the beach. Ninety Mile Beach is, we are told, not ninety miles but ninety kilometres, and it is a public highway where the Highway Code has to be adhered to. Of course, you can only drive on it at low tide and our friendly coach driver told us tales of those who got stranded or lost their lives. At the end of it, we drove in Te Paki Stream for two kilometres to get back onto the road. We stopped for sand tobogganing then went on our way on unsealed roads now.

At Cape Reinga there are various walks, the main one to the lighthouse. After this we had lunch at a small bay a few kms south and drove back towards Kaitaia. This was where most of us started to doze off ? it is a long trip to the Cape and back. We did have a stop at the amazingly white silica sands at Rarawa Beach, and a dairy where we all piled off the coach for ice creams. In brief: a great trip, lovely scenery, bit tiring coming back.