Bay Of Islands Sublime Apartments Paihia

... Haruru Falls where we played in the waterfall before heading back up the river through the Mangroves. Paddling a kayaking with a rudder was totally new to me! I remembered the tips Jan gave me about using your knees etc to push for power instead of you feet, because they operate the rudder....meaning alot of time going round in circles! but anyway it was fine:) we then made our way out to see, round a few islands in Paihia bay before stopping for lunch, with a rather windy landing ...

... brothers (Mike and Dan) that had partied with us in Taupo staying for a few days so that was good to meet up and hang out with them... a bit of familiarity! I've now got a job working for accommodation in another hostel which is really chilled out and yet again I seem to know everyone already!

Yesterday I went out on a boat trip that takes in as many of the 144 islands here as possible... when we got to the furthest point (the famous hole ...

... ready to leave the Bay of Islands tommorow.

Day 30

Today we checked out and went over to Waitangi Treaty grounds and house. We spent 15 mins watching a history film of Waitangi treaty of 1840. We then looked through the grounds, saw the large waka (canoe) and saw the amazing treaty house, where the whole inside is made of wood and amazing wood carvings. The Maori carvings are really ...

... artist Hundertwasser. When in Vienna a year ago we visited his gallery and his mini-village, but being in the total outbacks of NZ and seeing this toilet seemed too obscure for words. Seriously, of all the places in the world he chooses Wakawaka to place public toilet. Words fail me! Anyway, it was, as always with his art, great fun and wacky and we enjoyed this brief detour before moving on to Paihia. Woke up late today (ever since we have reached NZ we seem to be sleeping our ...

... but the name had stuck by the time they worked this out, and sounds a lot less impressive anyway). After a few minutes driving down the beach, we came across a small bus, which had carved "Help!" and "SOS" into the sand. Amusing as it seems, I guess no-one would stop if they just waved! The bus managed to offload most of its passengers onto another bus, and we left a few of our passangers who had to get back with that bus as well. We ended up towing the bus all the way down the ...

... the national holiday of waitanga, and there is no accommodation available for the weekend. we have to go to the hostel every day to check to see if we have a bed and if not have to beat the other fifty people who came up with the kiwi experience to the few beds there may be in other hostels, also they said all the buses going out of pahia were booked for next few days so we couldnt even leave. there was a lot of cursing the name of kiwi ...

... with the Bay of Islands and the reality (or perhaps lack of reality) of dolphin encounters there. We wished we had opted for one of the wild dolphin encounters that were available on the south island. There was far less hype, and likely a far better chance of swimming with the dolphins. We ended our visit to the Bay of Islands with a low-key evening at the Pickled Parrot. Paul outside smoking a cigar, and me having more time with Rocky the Parrot.

... so I did something I have never done before... gone commando under a wetsuit (well travelling is all about new experiences)! Now I had always envisaged dolphin swimming being a beautiful and wonderful occasion where you basically splash about in clear water and they come and swim around you etc in a very playful and relaxed way. What I found to be the case, was that we were all told to get in as the skippers bellowed in a very alarming way "SWIM! SWIM!" and you ...

... a lie in as we were quite tired from the drive up, we drove into Paihia centre for some breakfast. We couldn't quite believe how fantastic the weather was. We sat outside eating our food, and when you think that 31st May over here is the equivalent of 30th November in the UK, you certainly wouldn't be dining al fresco back home. The skies were blue, the sun was blazing, the temperature was 22 deg and we didn't have a care in ...

Still having some time left in the afternoon, we decided to visit the Waitangi Treaty grounds which are just outside of Paihia. The Waitangi Treaty was made in the 1840's with the local native peoples (Maori's) giving them the Queen's protection against the French. For $12NZD, we watched a nice audio-visual presentation summarizing the history of the site, visited a huge longboat, a beautifully carved meeting house, and the restored house with nice gardens.