Tara & Dave: The Land of Sand and God.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Dave and I flew up to Kerikeri for a little trip. We had bought cheap flights from "grabaseat" off of the Air New Zealand website. They have a promotion where they sell cheap flights within New Zealand and sometimes neighboring countries. When we first arrived, we picked up our rental car and headed to the very north tip of the northern island. Along this peninsula was 90 Mile Beach, which you are allowed to drive your car on. It is flat and smooth, but watch out for the ocean and blowing sand from the sand dunes. We stopped at the sand dune for a little bit. It was huge!

To get to the sand dune you have to cross a little stream and then right away there is an abrupt 45 degree hill of sand for you to climb. We started our journey and made it up the first hill. It was really windy that day which made it not as fun with sand blowing in our eyes, ears, everything. We climbed up a taller hill and was able to see the water. By that time our eyes were hurting and we had had enough. We headed back to the car. On our way back I had one good fall in the sand, as well as Dave. When we arrived I reached into my pocket to give Dave the keys. To my horror they were not there. I started freaking out. Dave thought I was kidding. I wished I was. Somehow and somewhere the keys to the rental car had fallen out of my jeans pocket and our cell phones were out of range. The only thing to do was go back to the sandy hills and hope we find the keys. As we walked back to the sand I just kept praying to myself over and over, "Please let us find the keys. Please let us find the keys." I had no idea what we would do if we couldn't find them. I'm sure Dave was just as worried. How were we ever going to find them again? They could have been anywhere, plus barried and then we'd never find them. After walking up that first hill I noticed a spot of black to my left. My heart raced and I ran to the spot. Could it be? "Oh please let it be the keys! Oh please" To my wonderful joy and amazement I had found our keys within 5 minutes of our search. It was such a miracle. We could have been searching out there for who knows how long, but God provided and we got out of there as fast as we could...with the keys safely in Dave's hands.

Here's a little video of Dave on the dune.

After the dunes we drove out to Cape Reinga, the very north tip. It was incredibly windy there as well. We headed back to the hostel for a good nights sleep. We stayed in Paihia, which was a small town with lots of hostels. On one street there were three within a block of each other. The one we stayed in was nice. The only problem was at 3 in the morning when a bunch of people were yelling to and at each other right in front of our door. Luckily we were able to get back to sleep. We woke up around 7:30 and took out a couple bikes for free from the hostel for about ten minutes. Next up was our tour of the Bay of Islands on a fast speed boat. It was really fun. We sat in the front, got sprayed with the salty ocean water and saw the beautiful scenery. After that we raced back to the airport to return our rental car on time and ate lunch. It was a fun little trip.

Crazy water below.

Window seat, which everyone had because the airplane held about 12 people with one seat on each side of the aisle. And there was no door to the cockpit, so you could see everything the pilots did.