Hope you all had a GREAT Christmas!

We had a luverly time up North.  Visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds on a VERY wet and windy day, drove along 90 mile beach and on up to the  huge sand dunes near Cape Reinga, climbed one (exhausting) and boogie boarded down it (exhlilerating), stood at the top of NZ at the Cape where the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea crashed together on Christmas Eve,  lay on the beach and surfed on the waves in our kayaks (son and I did, anyway) on Christmas Day and cruised around the Bay Of Islands, meeting some of its dolphin inhabitants on Boxing Day.

Whew - was shattered when we finally returned to Auckland on the 27th!

Here are a few piccies!

Here we are - apres boarding!

We had SUCH FUN!  We came down the dune sooooo fast!  I made too many yahoo noises and promptly paid for it all with sand in my mouth - yuk - made my sarnies very crunchy and interesting though.  The dune was really high and steep - a bit scary when you looked down - but FAB when boarding down - woohoooooo!

Here's Corrie's slide down the dune!  Unfortunately, Kev didn't video Adam or myself due to the fact that we weren't sure how well the video would turn out on the phone (I forgot the camera that day - DUH).  Anyway, as you can see, the phone took great piccies!

Corrie did FABULOUSLY!  Unfortunately, she was a little too far forward on the board which led to the face dunking at the end!  You'll be glad to hear she is fine and was not injured at all during the making of the film.

(See bottom of page for video - sorry it's in wrong place! - Took ages to upload - sigh....)

Here are some splendiferous views of other sand dunes taken on our walk towards the lighthouse at Cape Reinga - beautiful view innit?!

This is the view of the Maori "place of leaping", where the spirits of the dead leap off the headland, climb down the roots of the 800 year old pohutakawa tree and descend downwards into the underworld to make their way Hawaiiki - the Maori traditional homeland.  You can just about see the tree poking out of the smallest pointed rock - near the top, at the right hand side.

Corrie and Will.

Bro Ad and sister Cos!

 With mummy!

Father has joined with a traditional Maori expression.....

Here's our new member to the Tung clan!

A calmer moment - so far from home!

Chilly evening beach photo near our bach.

Pretty hotel near the chippy where we had a scrumptious dinner - yummy!

Some of our new dophin friends at the Bay of Islands.

Sorry - tis very difficult to get piccies of these friendly 3 metre long blighters, they just will not stay still for one!

It was windy on the boat, but SCORCHING when we got off!  Said wind due to whizzing of boat through water and sea breezes.

We also saw some penguins swimming around during our escapades that day!

Well - that's it fer noo!

As you can see, not too many photos really, due to us all having a fabbie time!

Oh - here's a final couple of the famous loos at Kawakawa - 

Action shot of Kev there, making his hasty way in after a long journey from the south!

A rather shaky image of inside the ladies'!

These loos are fab - they were designed by the resident artist (at that time) Frederick Hundertwasser - google his name and Kawakawa and you will see many more photos of these toilets - they are a real pleasure to visit!

Well - that's all for now.

Happy New Year to you all - we will be among the first to reach it!  (Just thought I'd rub that in!).

x Sue