Exploring the North

Friday, April 1^st, 2011

This morning I woke up and all of us went to my new favorite spot in New Zealand, Cape Reinga. Cape Reinga is the northern most part of New Zealand and is where you can see the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea meet. It is also legend that this is the gateway where spirits come and jump off the cliffs to get into the afterlife.  Because of this Maori legend, we are not allowed to bring food or drinks onto the hill. It took us about 3 hours to drive to Cape Reinga. Once there I mailed some postcards from the most northern mailbox in New Zealand that gets special postage.

I then walked down around the cape. It was the most gorgeous view I have ever seen, surpassing everything I have seen in New Zealand.  It was so cool to be able to look on one side and see the Tasman Sea, and then to walk over to the over side and see the Pacific Ocean. The two bodies of water look so different. They are such different colors and have different tides. I hiked up to the top of the cape and did a cartwheel on the hill. So fun, Not many people can say they have done a cartwheel on top of Cape Reinga. I then went and sat on the edge just taking in and enjoying the view. It was so spectacular to watch the two currents from the two bodies of water meet and clash together.  There are very few places in the world where you can see that spectacular event take place.  The mixing and clashing of the currents is such a gorgeous and interesting sight with each pattern being unique. I could sit there and watch it for hours. Seeing a place like this just reminds me more of what a beautiful world we live in and how grateful I am for a Heavenly Father that created it. He has such insight and really did think of everything when creating the world. It is seeing places like this that reminds you of how marvelous the hands of God are and make you think of what it must have taken for Him to create this world we live in. I am so grateful I had the opportunity to see this amazing sight.

I then walked down to the light house and saw how many kilometers I am from LA. I wish we could have climbed up in the light house, but since we couldn’t I climbed over the wall and sat on the edge of the cliff just thinking about how wonderful this place is and how beautiful the natural wonders of the world are. I am so grateful I have had so many amazing experiences in New Zealand. Before leaving Cape Reinga, Dr. Jacobs used our money to buy five plants so we could plant a bush or a tree on Cape Reinga. So I have officially planted a tree on Cape Reinga and left my mark on the Cape forever.  I loved being at the Cape so much. It had this special feeling about it that you don’t feel everywhere. It is almost like the Lord was there with us helping to show us how beautiful the natural wonders of the world are.

Afterwards we drove to 90 mile beach to have lunch and go surfing on the sand dunes. I grabbed a boogie board and hiked up this huge sand dune, almost like a little mountain, much bigger than the ones in Utah. Once I got to the top I jumped on my board keeping my whole body on the board and feet up and started surfing down the dunes. I went down so fast, due to my speed, about ¾ of the way down, my board flipped and I got right back on and rode the rest of the way down. It was pretty funny and so much fun. I did pull a muscle in my back pretty bad though. Janet set the new record of the BYU girls surfed the farthest and Becca had a complete wipe out in the water at the bottom. We had had so much fun surfing on the sand dunes.

We then loaded back in the vans and turned up the tunes and rocked out to the Beetles and songs from Grease while off-roading on the sand. It was the New Zealand form of safari. James drove our van 60 miles down right on 90 mile beach. It was such a cool experience to just be driving on the beach for miles and miles with the sand as our road and the ocean out our windows. It is kinda dangerous to do this because if you go at the wrong time your car can get stuck in the sand and be taken away by the tides. We drove about 60 miles down and then James stopped to ask someone that was on the beach where the point was we could drive back onto the road from. When he did, our tires got stuck in the sand. We were like oh no!! James told us we had to get out and push the van out of the sand, so the nine of us got out and pushed the van as hard as we could to get it out. I am sure it looked so funny to see nine girls pushing a car over the sand. We were laughing the whole time. Once we got the van moving again all of us went chasing after it and jumped back in. James then turned around and we headed towards the turn off back on to the road. It was such an experience. We always have some adventure in those vans. It was so cool to just drive in the beach for miles and see nothing but ocean and some birds we didn’t even see any people except for the occasional fisherman.

On our way back from 90 mile beach, we stopped to get the vans washed because they were so dirty from all of the off-roading on the beach. We stopped at the kauri gallery where there is a stair case made out of a tree and lots of amazing wood carvings. As we left the gallery, the girl in our van decided to play an April fool’s joke on Dr. Jacobs. Once we pulled away and were going again, Emily asked “Did anyone see Nicole come out of the bathroom?” Kara said. “No” Then all of us were like where is Nicole, I hope she is in the other van, Dr Jacobs asked us if Nicole was in the van and we said no, then he had us count how many girls were in the van we said 8 even though there were nine. He used his mirror to double check and Nicole ducked so he couldn’t see her. Then he yelled crap and was about to turn around. We all yelled, “April fools.” It was so funny we got him so good he was double checking to make sure all of us were in the van for the rest of the day.

We then continued our journey back and drove to doubtless bay for a swim and to walk the beach and then a place on the bay for fish and chips for dinner. The view from the fish and chips joint was gorgeous; straight out of a movie. It really was such an amazing day. I saw so much and all of it was just such an unbelievable experience.

Once we got back, I spent some time talking to Linda about the day and being in New Zealand.  I just love her. She told me though that about two weeks after we get home it will feel like New Zealand never happened. That really scares me. I really hope I never forget all of this and the feelings and experiences I have had here. I am such a different person now after living all of these experiences. I am not the same person I was when I left the states 3 months ago. This experience has changed me in so many ways and has really strengthened my faith in the Lord. I really hope I never forget all that I have felt and experienced here.