Exploring New Zealand on Foot: Good Bye Auckland, Hello Bay of Islands!!!

We have spent 5 days in Auckland and will be off to a hostel on the water and beach days for a whole week as we travel north to the Bay of Islands. While in Auckland we have seen much of the city and the surrounding areas. We drove on a beach at Murawai, parked the car, played in the sand, hiked a dune and drove home. Oh and the beach "road" had a speed limit of 60km. Never thought we would see a speed limit sign on a beach. We also went with the host family we are staying with to Waipu and the surrounding areas to see another great beach. The sun didn't appear much but the wind came in full force. While it was not a successful sunny day, it was a great opportunity to learn how to fly a massive kite. After shell hunting, eating gourmet pizza and visiting with more new people we took the 1.5 hour drive back to Auckland. The next day we decided to visit the Auckland Museum. While Ben could spend hours in a place like that, I became bored after an hour. After a few hours spent in their it was time to meet up with Geva (acquaintance from High School who lives in NZ now), have a wonderful lunch and after deciding it wasn't good beach weather we headed to watch the Super Bowl. Man oh man were some people dressed crazy. We did not expect Kiwi's to be so into the Super Bowl but we quickly found out we were wrong. Finally, on the last day in Auckland we took a ferry to Rangitoto Ssland (25 min ferry) where we climbed to the summit and then hiked around 1/2 of the island. In total we hiked about 3.5 hours non-stop and were a bit tired by the time the ferry arrived to take us back to Auckland. From there we thought Fish & Chips on the beach would be wonderful, so we bused over to Mission Bay. Eating Fish & Chips on the beach quickly made us popular with the local seagull crowd. I have to say that the seagulls here are just as annoying as they are at home. I guess some things never change. Tomorrow we will embark on a windy road for a 3 hour bus ride up to Paihia, Bay of Island,s where we will be for the next week.
Oh and on a random note... NZ is known for its dairy products and let me tell you that the milk, yogurt, cheese and ice cream and heaps (NZ term) better here!
~ The Traveling Duo