This morning we headed out to the giant sand dunes to do some sand duning. We rented boards from a nice lady who had given us directions yesterday. They are similar to boogie boards except that one side is a completely smooth surface. When we got to the giant sand dunes it was amazing. It looked like a desert or something. The entire landscape was so different from anything we had seen yet. They seemed to go on forever.
Climbing in the sand was difficult; we kept sliding back down. It was definitely a workout. We would make it to the top of one dune only to see another larger one. It took us about 45 minutes just to get up the one that we had chosen. When we got to the top we jumped onto our boards on our stomachs and sand sledded down the dune. It was just like sledding in snow (minus the cold). We slid down a couple of smaller dunes before we tackled the massive one. We took a running start and flew down. About halfway down my board started to turn and there was nothing I could do to stop it. It was like one of those movies where a car flies up sideways and crashes to the ground upside down, except I was underneath it. I have never had so much sand on me in my life. Somehow it got in the front and back of my clothing (including my skin tight running capris), in my hair and ears and in my mouth. I kept finding more sand for hours afterwards. Lindsay was much more successful. She fell off at the end and managed to only get a face full of sand. It was so much fun sliding down though!
After our duning adventure we headed back toward Kerikeri, with stops to buy roadside produce. Vegetables and fruit are insanely expensive here, think $2 per avocado and $4 per cucumber. Roadside stands are significantly cheaper. We bought avocados and strawberries on our way back to the Bay of Islands. We made it back before Santee’z closed and we had another insanely large lunch. It was absolutely delicious. We both ordered more of the walnut cake as well as a chickpea burger. To die for.
We are staying in a campsite near downtown Kerikeri so that we can experience the nightlife in town. We were directed to a couple bars by our new friends at Santee’z. We decided to have a couple drinks and do some dancing at a place called Rocksalt. The town was dead quiet, except for a German couple who were very intent on befriending us. Instead of staying there, we met up with the tandem masters who we went skydiving with, Ups and SG. We headed out to Rainbow Falls and went swimming in the waterfall. It was great fun until the eels came out and scared us out of the water! We headed back to play pool (very poorly) for a couple hours. We had a lot of fun!
The Marauding Maineiac 