Paihia Day 26 and 27
Trip Start
May 20, 2009
1
20
146
Trip End
Dec 10, 2009
Paihia,
New Zealand
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
An early start today, we got to the Kiwi bus at 7:30am, with our bus driver Jarrod giving us a guided tour up to paihia. Today I met several people on the bus, Will, Ed and Karen so far. We stopped off for a yummy berry smoothie and cheese and ham toastie on the way. We arrived at 12:30am and when we got settled Jo, Will and Karen and me walked to Harruru Falls. The walk was quite long, we crossed over a couple of bridges and when we got there the waterfall was quite impreessive, with a rainbow starting to form at the base. After our escapades we headed back to the hostel (after visiting the shopping market) and had our BBQ, it was nice although not very filling!! After a few drinks with the group I headed back to the hostel to get an early night.
Day 27
Today in the morning I headed up to the viewpoint. It was a nice walk, although I got lost a few times. When I reached the top there was a bench there with views of the bay of islands. At 1:30pm Karen and me boarded the ferry ride to the "Hole in the Rock/Cape Brett/Dolphin Cruise". The views were great and we were blessed with good weather, which had looked in doubt earlier. The islands were quite impressive, with the blue sky and clouds making for nice viewing. We passed Russell on the way and other islands. However without a doubt the highlight of the day was SWIMMING WITH DOLPHINS. Karen and me were lucky in that we got to see the dolphins (which was good as yesterday Ed didn't see any), we managed to get near them and were given permission to swim with them. Karen and me were the only people on our boat doing it, we had to wait till we got really close, with out wet suit and snorkelling gear on we went in. The sea was quite cold, although after a while you didn't notice. We were told by the staff to swim hard and fast as the dolphins kept moving. Other divers were shouting "over here, over here!" I went under the water and was able to see 3 dolphins!! With one of them actually speaking to the others. When we swam back (after a hard swim) we got dried , both Karen and me were buzzing, it was a surreal, amazing and unforgettable experience.
After the excitement, we went through the hole in the Rock, a small cove in one of the mountains, it was quite good and we got some nice pics. To round off a great day, we saw a rainbow at the end of the boat trip. What a great day. After cleraning myself up and using the Internet, the Kiwi experience group met up for a pub quiz at 8pm in the bar. The pub quiz was quite a laugh, our team was Neil, Karen, Jo and me. When we got back to our hostel, we played some cards and ate nachos. We met our new roomate Shay from Canada, Vancouver. After playing some cards for a while we went to bed for the early trip to Cape Reinga.
