Action World

Action World

Could this be third time lucky?… yes! It’s open! Wooohoo! Action World in Paihia. It’s the place you can experience the things you never have! First we tried out the super slide to warm up! It’s like a huge bouncy castle slide. You sit at the top in a sack (which looks quite daunting) then that’s it, lay down, arms on your chest, push yourself off, zoom down at speed, fly off the end, end up in mid-air and crash on the landing surface, it’s so much fun! We just wanted more!

Task 1 – Tarzan. Ok so you have to climb up the ladders grab the bars, swing to the next one, hold on, swing to the next, keep your rhythm and grab the third bar, swing as much as you can and try to land over an inflatable bridge, easier than it sounds! I made it to the third bar, but couldn’t quite swing over the inflatable. No matter how hard I tried every time…nah couldn’t make it. Mikko on the other hand swung like Tarzan on the bars, first time swung onto the inflatable, second time, yup made it over the inflatable and made it look easy!

Task 2 – The Tightrope. Well we practiced on the mini one first, about half a metre high… and then attempted ‘the big one’. So again you climb up the ladders, go the edge, approach the rope and you just know u isn’t going to make it first time! Haha. We had about 10 attempts each, getting no further than half way! It was fun jumping into mid-air and crashing on the inflatables.

Task 3 – The Wall. Well this one is a little different, the easy bit is climbing up which didn’t take either of us long, but then when u reach the top you have to stretch out and ring the bell, which is easier said than done when u turn around and see how high you are. Then the exciting bit, going down…well u could climb back down but there’s not much fun in that, so we just jumped off backwards haha it was well good!

Task 4 – The Trampoline. Ok, so it’s not really much of a task… just see how long you last! Back in the day you could last for hours and do silly tricks! Well now try…

Task 5 – The Ladder. Oooooohhhhh grrr this one is a toughie! It looks so easy but as soon as you step on the third or fourth bar it wobbles and wobbles…and wobbles, you try and keep the balance, reach to the next and you wobble and swing underneath the ladder! No matter how much we tried it didn’t seem possible, the bloke who was running the place came over and said “nah it’s easy, it’s the easiest one” he got on the inflatable got to the ladders, climbed up them whilst telling us how to do it. The ladders didn’t budge! It was as solid as a rock! So we tried and tried, followed his technique but we wobbled, wobbled and wobbled some more… and gave in.

Task 2 AGAIN – The Tightrope. We weren’t giving in! We tried and fell, and tried and failed. But eventually we were getting further and further across the rope until one of us made it across! It was meeeee! I made it! Then straight after Mikko made it across! Yes finally we did it. What a relief! Best thing ever.

Task 6 – The Bungee Cord. The aim of this task is to attach yourself to the harness and run! Run as far as you can, attach the plastic stick into the sand before the bungee cord forces you back and you land on your backside! Sounds easy? You’ll be surprised!

Forest Pools

Forest Pools

So highway 1 took us through some small villages in the middle of knowwhere, through a gorge and steep hills then eventually we saw Forest Road, just past Rahiri Village. The long gravel road let to a small quiet campsite in the forest just beside the river, the guys and girls got there shortly after us and we began to build our fire. Then we saw some other people from Cape Reinga! Who had found the free campsite!

It was a good evening, toasting marshmallows on the fire whilst sharing wine and traveling stories. Then of course the question which everyone asks me, ‘how did you and Mikko get together?’ “well…” I say. “We met in Cornwall (to everyone’s surprise) we used to work together, he had black dreadlocks back then, he left at the end of the summer and came back last year with blond hair and a tan! And things went from there” Then we could hear the Mawpaw, it looks similar to an Owl but instead of making a ‘coo-coo’ sound it says ‘maw-paw’ which is how they got their name! It sounds so lovely. BUT… Overnight the Possum’s had raided the scraps of food and rubbish. Mess everywhere! But we soon managed to clear it up. The others left to go to Raglan, and we decided to stay for another day as it was such a nice place. We camped with the other people that stayed at Cape Reinga; two German guys, a German girl, a     guy and an American girl! Plus me being English and Mikko being Finnish, it was a jolly combination!

They told us about some hot pools they was on a dvd which wasn’t far away, so the next morning we all headed to Kaikohe. 3 vans and a Car… a 4 vehicle convoy!  We went on Highway 12 until we reached Ngawha  Springs. Wow! We couldn’t believe our eyes! Haha the beautiful smell of rotten eggs! Mmmm lovely, we took a look at the hot pools and they were green! Iew! I don’t think they had been used for a long while. A lovely Labrador came to say hello, I think she liked the hot pools, wet and smelly but very friendly like Max J anyway, we said our goodbyes as they had to go to Auckland and we were on our own little mission.

90 Mile Beach

90 Mile Beach

From Kaitaia we went towards Ahipara, the end of 90 mile beach, it is huge, the beach carries on as far as the eye can see. This is suppost to be a great surfing spot, but unfortunately there were no waves os we just stayed for lunch. The beach is also a 4wd road, we were tempted to drive on it, but we realised we would get stuck and decided against the idea. Then we saw the Kiwi guys from the campsite, they were with 4 sweedish girls who also stayed at the camp. We told them about a free campsite we were heading to, and they decided to join us. We stopped off at the supermarket in Kaitaia for a few essentials before heading to Highway 1. Ha the amount of vans we recognised from the campsite was hilarious, it’s the only Road from Cape Reinga so everyone takes the same route, plus our van is the only blue one around so everyone recognised it, people pipping their horn, giving a little grin and a wave, it was great fun.

Back on the Road

Back on the road

We got back on Highway 1 towards Kaitaia to stock up on food and water when we heard about the Earthquake in Christchurch which happened at 1pm today rector scale 6.4, we were shocked, and couldn’t believe how bad it was! We didn’t go to the South Island because the cost of the Ferry from Wellington was over $400, and decided to go north.

Our hearts are with the people of Christchurch at this time.

Three King Islands

Three King Islands

 Ok, so this is the most northern northest point that can be accessed! We took a short walk to the lighthouse, which is now controlled in Wellington, the southest point on the North Island! Next to the lighthouse is a sign post, which has 8 cities worldwide named and on it, London was the furthest point 18029kms away! The Three King Islands is believed to have spiritual beliefs in Maori legends, there are several explanations of this written on stones, but it’s all very strange to me.