February 17th, 2010

We haven't had wireless for a couple of days so am using the laptop at the B&B. We are in the northern most part of  of the country and left our ITHF  hosts  two days ago. We are staying near the town of Opua in a Bed and Breakfast that  just happens to be owned by a Rotarian named Frank Leadley-- he and his wife are just wonderful. This part of the north country on the water is a tourist area with the towns of Keri Keri and others. We have visited the Whaganui treaty house-- which is where new zealand started as a country and the treaty was signed between several of the Maori tribes and the british.-- fascinating. We have also done of course some of our back country roads and long hikes into forests. Today we went to the northern most point in New Zealand on a very long bus trip -- it is called Cape Reinga and 90 miles beach--- the scenery is  overwhelming and the sand dunes are enormous.  Tomorrow we are headed on a boat to look at the scenery , dolphins and something called hole in the rock. In the evening we will go to Frank's rotary club-- where is is going to be the incoming President for the 3rd time-- can you even imagine??
It is very very warm and the sun is very strong-- at night once it cools down it is good sleeping-- but humid til it does.