Arcadia Lodge Russell

... the law regulates the number of marlin caught.

We hiked up to an overlook which provided us a scenic view of the Bay of Islands.

Yesterday when we booked our cruise for today, I inquired about the weather prediction and was told: “Fine. We haven’t had rain for over 9 weeks. People are having to truck in water for their cisterns.” It’s true, because we saw a sign in the window of a ...

... Zealand with a controversial history and houses some important historic buildings, like erm the oldest police station in NZ umm... By the time we reached Russell the rain had eased off a bit and so we took a walk along The Strand, a long street where the historic quaint buildings overlook the bay, we stopped in one of the cafe's for fish n chips. We then went to find our campsite for the evening which turned out to be ok if a little overpriced, what it lacked in facilities ...

... with huge fish from a long time ago. I think my grandfather, Carl (Sodium) and Grandma Judi came here a long time ago, too. We watched the sunset then went back to our house for a barbeque dinner of seafood and steak. I am going to miss traveling because...well everything. LIke being with my Dad all the time, and my Mom and seeing new places. But I can't wait to be back home! I am having a sleepover with Matthew on Saturday which will be AWESOME!

... dolphins' trip and were lucky enough to find a pod of around 30 bottlenosed dolphins who frolicked for our entertainment. Unfortunately, as there were two wee baby dolphins we weren't allowed to get in and swim with them - the rules are rightly very strict on this. It was still great to watch them playing in their natural environment. As luck would have it our stay in Russell ...

... then left on the airport bus to catch his plane back down to Wellington. I left my parents exploring Auckland whilst I went to Vector Arena to meet up with Jen for the Kylie concert. Afterwards, I met back up with my parents and we went back to the hotel. It made sense to stay there as I was getting an early flight in the morning, and my parents were heading out of Auckland to continue their tiki tour of New Zealand.

... at the wharf in Paihia at about 4.30pm, which I was kind of glad about - I foolishly did not bring a jacket, so I was really cold from the wind as it started to get later. Grabbed a quick bite from this place that did oysters (I've got a proper yen for them now, I've eaten tons since I arrived) but they were a bit tasteless and disappointing. When I get back to Auckland tomorrow, I might go to Cin Cin again, just to have the ...

... but they looked like they had sort of guilty looks on their faces. When we got back, we read in our travel guidebook that in this area of north New Zealand, it's quite common for rental cars to get broken into. Fortunately, Dolly was unhurt and we could say we survived the gangs of New Zealand. We decided not to drive all the way up to Cape Reinga but rather just take our time driving around. We drove up ...

... told to go to a place on the west coast that has big Kauri trees so we take the car across one of the bays on a ferry and then drive through Kauri forests along very very twisty roads. We head for a Kauri museum but Liv is feeling even worse so we decide to keep going and later that evening we arrive in Auckland for the 2nd time. We stay in a place just out of the centre which is rather horrible even if it does have free internet and I'm all to glad to get up early and leave the next day.

... a long but thoroughly enjoyable day drinking beers and wine on the beach at Midnight. Great star watching too as no light pollution. Next day it was up not quite so early and onto a boat trip in the morning for Dolphin watching. Was a bit sceptical about what we might see, but within 30 minutes the Catamaran was surrounded in about 25 dolphins with two sets of mother and babies. Absolutely fantastic!! Got to go to a private beach for a swim too. Got off the boat at an ...

... to come by over here!

Unfortunately that proved to be a mistake, because the "3.5 hr" journey ended up taking us over 6 hours to complete, and Katie was HATING the clutch control for the manual gearstick.

Typical, when we had automatics we didn't even SEE a traffic jam, yet when we hit the tailbacks she has a manual gearbox to contend with!

Once we got over the ...