Kaitaia

After falling asleep at 3PM and sleeping through until 5 AM the next morning thanks to jetlag, we met with Amber-  a lovely kiwi, yesterday morning for a full day of touring/exploring Auckland area.  We drove to the top of Mt Eden with a spectacular 360 degree view of Auckland, toured the Waitakere Ranges regional park and visitor center and learned about many of the natives trees and birds. We then took a drive to the beautiful beach/surf town of Piha and saw the black sand took a walk to Kitekite waterfalls.  The 'bush' (forest) here has the most amazing trees, I felt like we were walking through the jungle.
  Amber's friend Stacia (who's from Chicago) invited us all from a lovely Thanksgiving dinner.  Even though we are in NZ we still managed to eat a full Thanksgiving meal with a bunch of Kiwi's, who were a bit perplexed by the whole concept.  The food was delicious and the perfect pre-hiking meal!
  This morning we took a bus to Kaitaia, and tomorrow we will head north to Cape Reinga to begin our hike.
Our SPOT device is not working for the moment- so the 'Where are we on a map' part of the blog is not working- sorry! I am trying to get it fixed.
Happy trails!
-JP and Nut

Auckland from Mt. Eden

Waitakere Ranges regional park

Arataki visitors center

 Kitekite Falls

View from Amber's house!

Made it to Kaitaia!