Bay of Islands

Initially we had an afternoon visit to Piha. Beautiful surfing beach tucked down in deep bush lined valley. Truly beautiful, all flowering plants in bloom and not spoilt by development. Houses are built tucked in to the bush with verandas rising out of the trees. The surf was messy but we had a picnic in the shade of the rocky promontory on the black sand. A walk along the surf showed us the strong rips that are notorious down the west coast. We’ll have to go back on a better day to surf.

A drive north took us Paihia on the bay of Islands. More of a tacky sea side resort but with amazing views across the inlet to Russel and numerous uninhabited islands. We camped out in the beach under the stars, listening for kiwis in the bush. The next day we hired kayaks and paddled up the estuary past mangrove forests where pied shags were nesting, to a waterfall. We headed back to the inlet and ate lunch on a deserted island beach. A choppy sea didn’t stop us from paddling across the bay to Russell where we stopped at another deserted beach for a swim. Exhausted from our day on the water we headed round to Russell on the ferry to view the rest of the bay from the headland. Enjoying fish and chips we watched the rain approach and were very relieved to be able to stay with an friendly English couple in their cottage hostel for the night.

 

On thursday we travelled south down the coast past some beautiful little bays and potential surfing spots. We stopped at a beautiful gallery in Helena, where they sold amazing beautiful local craft work and had a veranda looking out over the bush covered valley. We travelled south to Matahura to a very warm welcome from friends of friends beth and jim.

Auckland

Paul and I safely arrived in Auckland 26 hours after leaving wintery london minus our two mountain bikes. With too much baggage to carry it was a bonus to have them delivered to the hostel the following day! We saw new year in with thousands of polynesians in Auckland city centre, watching the fireworks from the top of the sky tower.

On New Years Day we took a boat trip to the deserted volcanic island of Rangitoto. We spent a beautiful day exploring the old larva flows that have formed caves and the Pohutakawa forest with crazy plants and birdlife, on route to the crater. The cooler reward was swimming from deserted beaches on our walk back.

Today we have found a van! A mitubishi delicia thats been converted to a camper in good condition and with a much better engine than alot of the mini campers over here. So by the end of the week we'll have our own wheels!