INTERNeX New Zealand: KIWI Experience Bay of Islands!

To give you all the best tips and information about traveling in New Zealand, our interns Anke & Jeroen hopped on the green KIWI Experience bus to the Bay of Islands & Cape Reinga last weekend!

Only a couple of hours away from Auckland, you find the beautiful Paihia in the Bay of Islands! The names gives it away already, it’s a bay, filled with islands! 144 to be precise! There are so many awesome activities to be done and places to be explored over there!

For example: Kayaking, parasailing, swimming with dolphins, relaxing on one of many beautiful beaches, taking a cruise or going to the far north for a day! There you can find cape Reinga with its famous lighthouse. And close to that, you can go sand-boarding on the sand-dunes, which is a great and unique experience! Even cruising back to Paihia by bus is awesome, because the bus driver gets a bit bored of the normal road, they will just use 90-mile beach! Which is actually 55 miles (or 90km) long..

Have a look at some snapshots we took during our adventure up in the Bay! And if you’re interest in booking a trip, let us know at pr@internexnewzealand.com and we will help you book it! 🙂

A big thanks to CK and the KIWI Experience crew for having us!

What to do on the weekend

Straytrip Cape Reigna

Would you like to explore some more of New Zealand but you do not have enough time? The Cape Reigna trips only takes 3 days so can fit perfectly into your weekend. On Friday morning the bus will departure from Auckland and will take you up to Paihia. On the way a stop will be made at Goat Island, where a free glassbottom boat trip is offered. In Paihia there are all sorts of activities possible, if you dare try the highest skydive of 19.500 FT with a freefall of over 1 minute! The next day the bus will take you all the way up to Cape Reigna, the most Northern point of New Zealand. On the way some stops will be made at 90 mile beach, at the dunes for some awesome dunesurfing and Fish and Chips.

This trip is called the Patch Pass and costs 210 NZD. However if you book it through INTERNeX you will receive a 10 dollar discount. This pass includes transportation and some free activities.

For more information have a look at the website:  http://straytravel.co.nz/

Trip to Bay of Islands

Hey guys (or mostly gals)

I just wanted to tell you that I am going with Robin and another girl to the Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga next weekend. We will be leaving on Friday (11th of November) morning, stopping in Whangarei and Goat Island before going to Paihia where we would like to do some dolphin swimming and snorkeling (if the weather allows that). The next day we will go to ninety mile beach where you can do sanddune surfing and in Cape Reinga we can see the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman Sea come together. On Sunday the 13th we will have some time to spend in Paihia and then we’ll head back to Auckland.

If a visit to the Bay of Islands and Cape Reiga is still on your must-do list and you feel like joining us, just let me know! The more the merrier we think!

X Lotte

The Amazing Northland

Hey all,

Are you thinking about where to spend the weekend? Then I have some cool opportunities for those of you who haven’t been to Northland of New Zealand. I am really grateful having had an amazing time up there last weekend.

So lean back and get inspired.

Luckely I was able to go on a five-day-trip through the amazing Northland of New Zealand with my friend Maria, who is currently studying at the Auckland University.

The most exciting thing about the trip was that we decided to hitch-hike in order to save money and get to know some locals.

Starting at Friday morning a little bit outside of Auckland at the on-ramp to

the motorway 1 up north. Without having any experience in hitch-hiking we hoped to be lucky and with the help of four different friendly kiwis we made our first stop in Whangarei, where we explored the Abbey Caves on our own.

Next morning we continued our trip to Paihia where we stopped and enjoyed a coffee in small, sunny cafe towards the Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa. In Paihia we used the free bikes of our hostel to get to Waitangi and enjoyed a free view at the Treaty Grounds. On our exhausting way back to the hostel we stopped at the really impressive Haururu-Falls.

In the afternoon we went to Russel (the former capital of New Zealand) by taking a ferry while having the typical kiwi Ice Cream: Hokey Pokey! Arriving there we visited the oldest church of New Zealand, followed by climbing a hill, where we had a spectacular sunset view over the Bay of Islands.

We ended our day by eating a bowl of Kumara Chips with sour cream recommended by one of our lifts at the Crusty Crab in Russel – absolutely delicious.

Next day we started again early to join a coast cruise to the famous Hole in

the Rock  and luckily we were able to see some dolphins, as well. In the afternoon a retired pilot and his wife gave us a private guided tour through the orange orchards in Kerikeri and the oldest stone building of New Zealand. Afterwards we tried to find the Rivertrack to the Rainbow Falls and funny was end up being on a golf course.

The last two hours of daylight we spend cruising over Mangounui and the Doubtless Bay to our accommodation in Kaitaia. Such a funny, sunny day!

On Monday we did the amazing tour to Cape Reinga including a beach cruise at the ninety mile beach, getting full-day entertainment program by our funny local tour guide and swimming at the most awesome beaches we have seen so far.

In the evening we enjoyed another beautiful sunset while swimming in the Tasman Sea at the beginning of the Ninety Mile Beach in Ahipara.

The last day we made our way back to Auckland by hitch-hiking down the West coast, which was really hard in the beginning of the day but became easier in Omapere, where a nice guy picked us up and dropped us off close to Auckland.

I hope you got a good impression what you can experience in the beautiful Northland. And if you don’t feel like hitch-hiking, check-out the cool bus tour of Stray Travel, who offer almost the same trip as we did.

See you next week at the PuB Night!

Cheers, Caroline