Pickled Parrot Backpackers Paihia

... the rock island) we spotted a whale and its calf which was amazing to see... we stayed about 45 minutes watching it surface and leave its footprint, it even did the whale tail flip for us! As if this wasn't enough we then spotted 2 dolphin pods on the way back in and stayed and watched them playing and swimming alongside us for a while!<br><br>Tomorrow I'm heading up to the very tip of the north island for a day trip then I'll be heading south again...<br>

As my parents were here visiting, we decided to take a day off and have a long weekend in the Bay of Islands. I had to be in Auckland on the Monday anyway as I'd bought a ticket to go and see Kylie, with my friend Jen. My parents were already up in Auckland as they'd been touring the North Island. We flew up on the Saturday morning at 8am. I was very hungover as on the Friday night, we went to the pub from work ...

... with no warm up days). * Sitting on the beach eating ice cream is far easier (they have this great magnum style cookie's and cream ice cream - it's really good!) * I'm NOT going to have fish &amp; chips for dinner though - I must prove to myself I have some restraint. * That's it really - I don't know how I used to cope with going to work everyday, must have been stressful ...

... for her postal address, if one of you could ask her to send it to me by e-mail that would be greatly appreciated. Anyway, then we decided to go try to hike up the trail to the falls. We did make it to the trail, we did complete the trail, but boy were we ever tired after. The trail is five kilometres one way so we travelled 10 in total on that hike. You must take into consideration also that we walked from Paihia to the trail and needed to walk back ...

... after spending the last five minutes crushing a middle aged lady next to me. And to top off a great trip I also got see a few blue penguins, only 30cm tall swimming idly through the crystalline water. That evening I managed to catch up with a fellow Brit I met in Auckland 6 weeks earlier but the night life isn't too much to rave about in Paihia with only 1 nightclub available. Although for a town of such a small population I am not surprised. Despite the Bay of Islands magnificent ...

... Auckland, which was lovely and reminded me of home. All crashing waves and rocks and windy and lots of gannet birds and a beautiful sunset, proper bo!! We then drove out to the sticks and visited one of Brians mates and I got my first taste of New Zealand hospitality and home life. When I arrived the folks were watching the rugby and were cooking a "boil up", which is NZ stew made with lamb and sweet potatoe, the staples of any NZ diet! So we ...