Today we decided to rent a car and head north. I got my international drivers license in Vegas in case I wanted to drive. We went to the local Budget car rental place and got a Ford Festiva! Dinky little car, but good for the streets around here. Driving on the opposite side of the road is quite a trip, although I got used to it fast!

On the way the roads were windy, up and down mountains, and narrow at points. The scenery was incredible. You would be in the middle of a jungle like area.........

We stopped at a beach about 150Km north of Auckland to check it out.

It was low tide, so there wasn't that much surf.

There were some locals (definitely natives) searching for sea urchins. We asked them why they were collecting them and they said, to eat! We asked them to show us and he split one open with a huge knife and told us the parts that you can eat. Sid and I ate live sea urchin! It was pretty good, sorta sweet.

On they way home we stopped at another beach and they were having some kind of boat races. I think it was called Thundercat racing, a new type of boat, because the announcer was really trying to sell the boats. 2 people per boat, the driver starts on the beach and when starting gun goes off they run to their boat and take off. They do 3 laps around a square track and come extremely close to the shore.

The best part is on the way out towards sea and they have to deal with the waves. I have some great video footage of some boats flipping.

We headed home and stopped at a fast food joint. Coca-Cola has a huge presence here, I haven't seen a single Pepsi sign anywhere.
Goto January 26