Scenic Circle Bay Of Islands Paihia

We continued our journey north and made a diversion to Matauri Bay which, whilst completely beautiful in its own right, has become infamous as being the place where the French decided to sink the Rainbow Warrior back in the 80s.



The boat lies about a mile off-shore as it was anchored just off some islets. Greenpeace had been giving the French some serious "jip" in nearby French Polynesia over their nuclear testing. Obviously ...

... when we went to ask for them. At that we were sort of stranded. We played a bit of tennis and then Alan took the last bike at my insistence and headed off to visit the place where the white Europeans signed a treaty with the Maoris. Unfortunately the bike broke five minutes down the road and he was back before I knew it. We cut our losses and spent the rest of the day packing, watching tv, reading and eating. Exciting stuff. We had an early night as our pick up was 8am the next morning.

... The colour of the water is unbelieveable and the weather is fantastic. I covered myself in SPF 45 but I still managed to burn in areas, I'm going through sunscreen like water, but it's worth it! We are staying in a really cute hostel tonight. It's kind of like camp. The people we have meet are brilliant, they are so sweet and everyone has such interesting stories of where they are from and where they are headed. On the first night we went ...

... it a quick once over and started her up. CRIKEY she's loud!, 2.5 Litres of Rattling Shaky Diesel Engine. We set off from Albany at around 10:30am heading North towards the Bay of Islands, and we started to get a little worried about the van almost immediately. The indicators stopped working as we pulled onto the main motorway #1, and trying to get up that first hill was a nigh on impossibility. About 5-10 Km's down the road we stopped to fill up with Diesel and ...

... has had her old bag retrieved from a clothes bin and returned to her - complete with passport. It's so nice to hear a happy ending! England played the All Blacks in Auckland tonight, and lost. To be honest I couldn't really decide who to support anyway so it's probably a good thing that I didn't go. Sunday 15th June Mikey and I headed off on the bus to Whangarei today. I wondered if we would ever make it off the coach as the door jammed shut and the driver ...

... sick as a dog since (got so bad, mucus was oozing out of my left eye, ewww). This is especially bad because Paihia is a wonderful place and the hostel I've decided to stay in is very social. Easter seems to bring all the international students to the Bay of Islands. Americans, Canadians, Germans, Swedes. All very friendly, and I'm unable to socialize due to the bloody flu. I haven't let my poor health stop me from having some fun, though. I've spent a number of hours lounging on ...

... the very first town New Zealand town. Because of its northern-most point, Russell was first port of call to navigators like Captain Cook! So they have a great town museum with a replica of his ship The Discovery, lots of whale bone, fishing paraphernalia. It's a history buff's, as well as sailor's, paradise here. I think of how many of my friends and family would love the New Zealand I have seen so far. Absolutely gorgeous. More to follow.

... of Waitangi was signed. It is so important to New Zealanders that their national holiday is called Waitangi Day. The grounds at the Traety house are sooo pretty, you get to spend as much time as you want perusing the area, and there is lots to see. They have the original house still on the grounds and it is decorated like it would have been back in the day, there are even some pretty scary dummies in it, but in unexpected places, so you turn a corner and one is right in ...