Triton Lodge Russell

... Und es gibt Eisburger!

Today we took the ferry to Russell, the former capital of NZ, where James Cook landed in the 17th century or so. Nowadays, it's only a small village with a few houses. But very nice. And you can eat Ice Burger there!

We have been spending the last few weeks in the north of New Zealand and around Auckland. The bay of islands has been fantastically beautiful and we spent a few days sailing, fishing and exploring small coves and beaches. We found one small village called Russell that we particularly liked as it reminded us of Dartmouth in Cornwall, it had even had a ...

... 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 ...

... After a bit of lunch we took in some of the main sights of Russell - starting with the old British Flagstaff Hill where a flagpole used to fly the Union Jack and caused much uproar amongst local Maoris' at one time - the mast was knocked over and re-erected 4 times. It was quite a walk up the hill to get there but it was worth it. Russell itself is very nice with a very small town feel to it - illustrated well in the ...

... climb up the rigging though, although two other 'crew' did. It was quite a blustery day out at sea, so a lot of the time the ship was very up and down, as well as being very port and starboard (that's left and right, possibly). They used the engine to get us out of Rusell, but after about 30 mins or so it got turned off, the sails were put up and the wind did its stuff and moved us along very nicely. Four dolphins came to ...

... bathroom. umm, no. I usually get up before everyone else so hopefully it won't be an issue. other than that it seems like a very pleasant hostel... very clean, which is always a plus when you're talking hostels. the day had turned out to be OUTSTANDING. "a ten" is what my mother would have called it. since I had the afternoon free I had already made up my mind to take a passenger ferry across the bay to the sleepy town of Russell and wander ...

... stayed there a good two hours before my grandfather agreed to come with us. Audry didn't feel like moving. We first went to the bank machine to get out some money, I find it strange that they don't charge ahything when you take out money, unlike in amarica and Canada there's no service fee so far. While we were there there was a big gust of wind, or rather a small rain storm which caused the power to go out. Conveniently this happened right when the bank machine was supposed ...

... we have come to the conclusion that the speed New Zealanders drive is affected by the colour of car they have and believe it our not but white car drivers are the dictionary definition of 'Sunday drivers' and actually hold Jake up - except on hills when let's face it a 3 year old on a skateboard would probably pass us ! We got as far as Thames which is the main town of this region and neither Lonely Planet or the view ...

... wonderful views of the bay. We are off to see Russell which the locals have assured us we will enjoy. Russell was the first whaling port in NZ and at that time had a reputation as a lawless, rowdy spot and earned its title as the Hell Hole of the Pacific. Now it is a sleepy seaside village with a quaint charm. The ferry ride is only about 10 minutes and they are pretty laid back here. We are instructed ...

... very friendly.

The first thing we did was to take a walk down to the water and around the bay, which gave us some "choice" (as they would say here!) views towards Russell.

As you can see, the weather was good again, so we've had a lucky ending to the year so far. Let's hope it continues!



With our host's help we booked a trip on a sail boat tomorrow ...