STORM

I stayed the night in the YHA in Awanui on the top westhand coast of the North Island. All night there was torrential rain and very high winds. I got up very early in the morning and the sky was black. There was no electricity and no water. I felt incredibly nervous about the impending storm. Especially as the place I was staying in was just a wooden prefab type building. So I decided that the best bet was to head as near to Aukland as I could before the worste of the storm hit. The news the night before said that it would be about ten o clock before the centre of the storm began travelling down the country.
I packed the car up really quickly in the strong wind and rain.I have to say my heart was pounding in my chest as I was not sure just how bad the storm was going to be and the sky was already dark.
I set off and it took me five and a half hours to get to Aukland.
It was the most frightening drive of my life. I am the one who always says "what kind of idiot would venture out in a storm like that?" But I did not want to sit in a prefab building waiting for it to hit.
The winds were so strong the car was being buffetted over the road at times and I could hardly see for the rain.

The sea was washing over the road in parts!
I resorted to chatted to myself in the car at times saying"oh please god look after me". I felt once I had started there was no turning back. But I have never seen such a dark sky and it was very eiery.
I was so glad when I reached Auckland YHA. I was really shattered from concentrating on the drive. But glad that I had made it to the city.
In the papers the next day It showed the destruction over the North Island and I realised just how lucky I had been. Lots of the roads I had used were either flooded or closed due to fallen tress. And vaste areas had not got electricity.
But in retrospect I would not do the drive again in those conditions especially on the little mountain roads in the high winds!!!

NORTH ISLAND AND CAPE REINGA

Danny who was staying at my hostel in Whangaroa went off to work, so I decided to take advantage of the fact that I was alone in the place to do a mud facepack. Well you can imagine my horror when an hour later as I went into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee with my face mask on, I came face to face with Danny!!!!!
He was pretty shocked as well!!! Apparently the weather was so bad that there was no work for him, so he had returned to the hostel.(Note to self...next time you decide to do a facepack stay in the bedroom!!!)
Eventually I left the comfort of the hostel and the daily hot tub sessions at Sunseekers in the Bay of Islands to venuture further North.Along the way I noticed several signs saying what to do in the case of a possible Tsunami and that left me feeling a bit uneasy, and to be honest I had not even contemplated the possibility of there ever being a Tsunami in this part of the world.
There was also a series of advertisements on the local radio stations urging people to make sure they had a disaster pack with water and food etc so they could use them in the event of an earthquake or a volcanic eruption in the area!!! All this made me realise just what the people of New Zealand deal with every day and take for granted as part of their lives. I think I would be on edge all the time waiting for the 'big one' to happen. But I managed to put that all to the back of my mind and continue to explore the delights of the North Island.Eventually I stopped at the most beaufiful place called called Taupo Bay.
It was so peaceful and I had a lovely walk along the beach and ate my lunch on the seafront.There was noone else around and I loved it.
I drove further up the coast to a little place called Mangonui and found a lovely little hairdressers and got my hair cut and coloured for eighty dollars(about thirty five pounds!)that is a fraction of the price it would have cost me in England, but saying that the cut is a bit dodgy, the fringe is far too short.But you get what you pay for...and it will grow!I then headed up to the far north of New Zealand. Stopping at niney mile beach en-route.
The sea was very rough and it was very windy..it was very exhilarating.
The road to Cape Reinga on the northern tip of New Zealand is very rough and it is mostly four wheel drive vehicles that use it. But the chap at the petrol station said if I took it easy I would make it up there in the hire car, so off I went.
And I made it along the very rough road.

It was very windy at the lighthouse, but it was fantastic to see where the Tasman sea to the West and the Pacific Ocean to the East meet. The Maori people believe that this is where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld. It is an area that is waiting to gain world heritage status from UNESCO.

I was so glad that I made the effort to get there and I was fortunate that it was sunny and clear, despite the strong winds.There were predictions of one of the worste storms to hit the north Island for ten years happening the following day.