Northland, New Zealand

The escape from the farm was punctuated by a beautiful drive with Black Sabbath's brilliant "Volume 4" giving us a sense of appreciation for Toni Iommi's riff-making abilities. After a night camping out at Kai iwi Lakes munching grilled cheese sandwhiches we made our way through Kauri forests (home of absurdly gigantic trees) to idyllic Ahipara, southern terminus of "90 Mile Beach", which can be driven if properly outfitted, even if it isn't really 90 miles long. We were content with walking, but after a few hours the desire to see what was up the road got the better of us, so northwards we pushed (but not before I did a damn fine job convincing a German pirmary school teacher that her next holiday MUST be in the Desert Southwest...in fact, I was ready to head to Flagstaff straighaway myself).

It wasn't soon afterward we picked up a lass from Athens, Ohio (of all places) who was WWOOFing around New Zealand after a year stint teaching English to Malaysian youth. Her next destination was Disney World, which even the blind can see is absolutely, fundamentally wrong, regardless of your moral upbringing. As soon as we dropped her off we scooped up some more backpacking detritus, in this case a 29 year old Swedish chap named Martin on a six month career break gap (half)year going round the world at a blazing pace. To help him out we screamed up Highway 1 to Cape Reigna, the Northernmost point in New Zealand where the dead spirits depart the earth while tourists take pictures of the quaint lighthouse. .

Having done our sacred duty (we had to settle for pictures since the ferry to the Great Beyond was fully booked) we blasted back down the road to Paihia, the gateway to the Bay of Islands and obligatory Kiwi Experience bus stop, thus giving the town its more than fair share of 19 year old English girls about to get the worst sunburn of their lives. Lodging was difficult to secure, but we got a smokin' deal on a little cabin on the hill and we had a few pints with a 79 year old gent nicknamed Hugh (as in Hefner) for obvious and enviable reasons..

Content with having "done" Paihia, we chose to explore the rest of the Bay of Islands, leaving Martin to his scheme of flying to Santiago for a 2 month assault on South America. Within 50k or so of Russell there are numerous coves, beaches, bays, and other "hidden gems" that make you damn grateful you chose to chuck everything and head to New Zealand, for places like these are the reason why you came here. It makes you feel sorry for the Americans who have to be content with commercialization, resorts, crowds, and guys playing Creed on cheap boomboxes way to loudly. .

After a few hours of digging we were able to have a nice little feast of shellfish in Waipu. It was a good thing we caught our dinner because the lone grocery store closed promptly at 6:30. The evening passed with American folk melodies and conversation with an English couple exploring NZ after a year of living in Perth, which was fine but too damn far away from friends and family in the UK...but they will at least wait until the snow melts before heading back north!.

After a final day at the beach scheming about what to do next (she wants to ride a horse down a beach with camping gear and a surfboard; I want to start a band a climb the Himalayas), we made the worst possible decision, and the last resort for all NZ backpackers: head to Auckland. Our hearts sank as the traffic became noticeable and the ugly skyscrapers loomed on the horizon. We parted ways as she had prior commitments to explore the middle of the North Island and I had to make decisions about when to leave NZ. However, after a week like that, to leave now would be sheer idiocy...