Christmas Vacation

The joys of sunshine and freedom from obligation form the perfect recipe for a great vacation. Having wonderful weather made it possible for us to see and do a great deal over the past few weeks. Our big trip started in Auckland, where we stayed for two nights. We saw all of the big sights and got to shop in all of the big city stores! The sky tower was great fun, though it's nothing compared to the CN tower. It's only about 1/3 of the size, but still provides a great view of Auckland and the surrounding suburbs. Here's a few pictures from inside.

The next big stop in our trip was the Bay of Islands - which is absolutely gorgeous! We stayed in a really great Bach (which is the kiwi word for holiday home or cottage) with eight of us. It was both exciting and relaxing. The first day we took a bus tour up to Cape Reinga, which is the Northern most part of New Zealand. The light house marks the place where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea, where you can actually see the tides crashing against eachother. Here's a few pictures of the Cape. The weather wasn't so great, and we were battling an awful lot of wind!

On the way back from the cape, the bus drove down 90 mile beach, that's right...I said down the beach. We drove across quick sand so that we could drive the bus down the sandy shore of this huge beach. There were giant sand dunes on along the coast, to which we irrationally threw ourselves down. Though it was rather scary, we all climbed the giant dunes with a boogy board in hand...only to race down head first with nothing but a slim board to keep our faces out of the sand. I didn't manage to get any pictures of us on the dunes, but here's a few of us on the huge beach.

The bus tour was a great way to see the country, as you also get to hear a lot of the history behind places and place names. It was very relaxing to hang out on the bus without having to worry about driving or getting directions. All in all, it is a highly recommended tour!!

That's all I have time for right now, I will post on the rest of the trip soon :)