Clarion Collection Edgewater Palms Paihia

... and me ended up in one bed cuddling and rubbing Mink. Not funny at all- we had to literally save his life. Because when we did snorkelling the water was so cold that Mink felt into a cold shock and his heart stop for a few seconds. That's why Johannes and I had to warm him up- sharing one bed- to save his life. But all in all the trip was absolutely stunning.

... bed and went back asleep. It was a fairly non eventful day but we had a trip booked the next day so it was good to have an early night. Our pick up on Tuesday morning was at 7am. The bus headed off to the northern most tip of NZ, Cape Reinga. We had a quick breakfast stop at a small bakery where I ate my first pie. It was delicious! Can't believe I've been missing out all this time. Then we drove to the coast to get to the giant sand dunes. It was sand boarding time. We all took a ...

... lively crowd quickly creates a fun party atmosphere under the influence of some bargain booze. Before long the bar was jumping and we agreed it very much had a 'freshers week' feel to it. All in all it made for a very enjoyable evening, helped along nicely by swapping stories with a lovely couple from Hertfordshire. After they retired to bed, we treated ourselves to a bit of a dance on the tables before heading off for some much-needed sleep! The new ...

... Bird.  It was this really neat bird that had blue eyes and a little bit of yellow in the corner of its eyes closer to the beak.  As we pressed on I was gliding by this log that actually had the Shag bird on it and I stopped paddling altogether and without a word of a lie I was no less than 2 m away from the bird.  And it didn't fly away until I was past it.  It was just a remarkable experience.  As we went on we learned ...

... the Waitangi Treaty, about the war canoes that the Maoris constructed, the flags that are of importance to all people in New Zealand and visited the Te Whare (hope I got that right) and the Treaty House. After that we went to a show of Maori dancers and singers. I did have a better idea of how things all happened by the end of the visit. From Waitangi, we drove through to Paihia where we settled into our motel ...

... where the Tasman sea crashes into the Pacific ocean although it was pretty calm you could still make out the two separate currents. We stopped on our way back down to check out 90 mile beach and headed up the towering sand dunes which was knackering. We then took the coastal route back to Paihia stopping for a well deserve ice cream on our way (Carly "the best Paddle pop ever!"). That night we headed out for dinner again and decided that fish and chips were going to be the ...

... birds, rats, cats, possums and hedgehogs. Now New Zealand is famous for amongst other things its lack of mammals and as far as I'm aware from school and a brief childhood obsession hedgehogs are mammals (they'd make funny looking fish or birds), so what are they doing here. Rats came by accident, cats as pets, possums for fur and the birds were here already but who brought the hedgehogs and why?

... when our departure time changed and another torrential down pour happened. We were out in it for 5 minutes and everything down to our underwear was soaked! We decided to chill out and dry out at the hostel instead. Later that afternoon we headed back to Auckland.

... and chilling out. Our last evening together was spent drinking the bottle of wine Flis had purchased for Tony back in Napier alongside some mussels and crackers. We then made our way into town and after a drink in an Irish bar, went to a Turkish eatery which although wasnīt what we expected at all, had a bit to eat before returning to the Irish bar for another drink to finish off the night. Knowing tomorrow we would be back in Auckland saying goodbye was a sad thought but one we didnīt dwell on.

... we'd booked onto an overnight cruise of the Bay of Islands and so most of the next day was spent waiting around until our 5pm boarding. As we were staying at the same hostel when we returned we had been able to leave our car parked there and our food in the fridge. When 5pm came around a tender boat came to take us to The Rock, a converted car ferry now accommodating backpackers in dorms on the upper deck. The lower deck serves as the bar and ...