Last 2 Days : Sand Boarding, Giant Trees & Goodbyes

         If you ever get the chance to go sand boarding, GO! This only cost us about $15 and it was a blast! After a few runs I really wished there was a chair lift to take us back up the hill, but the slide was well worth the climb. It took me a minute or two to work up the courage to go down, but there was really no skill involved and I didn't even get any sand in my mouth. :) Since I was burned the day before I didn't wear my suit so I stopped myself before going into the water, but I definitely would have flew straight out into the ocean otherwise. I've hurt myself sledding a few times, but this actually felt much safer and we all had lots of fun racing each other down the slope.
         After a few hours of this, we headed to the Kauri forest to see the biggest tree in New Zealand. The pictures don't do it justice at all, I was completely shocked when I saw it. It was wider than a standard sized living room for sure. It kind of looks like it's upside down to me because the branches on top look more like roots. It's protected so we're pretty far back from it or it would look much larger, but this way at least the whole tree fit in the shot. We hiked around a bit and saw some of the next largest trees as well and they were all startlingly huge. I kept forgetting how ginormous they were and every time we reached a new tree I would be amazed all over again. The biggest one is said to be over 5,000 years old!
         That night we camped right next to the beach and a hot springs pool. It was kind of like a water park with pools of all different temperatures. One tiny one called the lava pool was much too hot to even sit in, but some of the guys had fun attempting to stay in the longest. I think the record was ten seconds and they each did a fun little fire dance (which I enjoyed) when they hopped out. There was a movie pool as well, but we spent most of our time on the slides. Only one slide was open at that time of night, but it was absolutely fantastic! It was by far the fastest water slide I have ever been down. I was increasingly more scared to go down each time. It would whip you out at the end with the same effect of someone doing a giant cannon ball into the pool. We would each go down and wait behind this little wall that felt almost like being in an army trench to watch the others come out at an incredible speed.
          Earlier in the day we had bought a chocolate version of the game Clue. We took a blanket out onto the beach and played by flashlight for a few hours and then ate the clues when we finished. It was definitely a perfect final evening in New Zealand. I was sad to head back to Auckland in the morning, but after a few short hours on the bus I was saying goodbye to most of my new friends and after lunch there with the two that were left, I was headed to the airport and back to Sydney. I had a wonderful vacation in New Zealand and would 100% recommend visiting there to anyone interested. Hope you've enjoyed this lengthy series of posts! I hope I didn't go overboard! :)