Bay of Islands

 Day 1 – Paihia

It was time to leave Auckland and go exploring New Zealand. So after making some breakfast and leaving the dirty apartment (now cleaner than when we arrived) we went in search of the hire car firm that we had booked a rental car from.

As we had to rent the car for around three weeks and given that NZ appears to be very expensive we opted for the cheapest car we could find.  The car turned out to be a very beaten up Silver Nissan Sunny and after checking how much an upgrade would be (about double the cost) we decided to stick with it.  It’s not that bad and I could always moonlight as a mini cab driver in this carshould we need the money.

So we headed out of Auckland heading north for our destination of the bay of Island, whilst listening to our ‘teach yourself Spanish book’ as we have to gem up for South America.

About an hour into our drive we started to see the countryside that NZ is famous for, climbing twisty hills and getting some nice views over coastlines and lakes.  Also noting the amount of cattle and sheep in the fields. We should be OK for lamb here (and have room in the boot if we decide to supplement our budget by doing a bit of lamb wrangling!!).

The drive took about 3-4 hours in total and then we were arriving in the town of Paihai, which on first sight appeared to be a nice, but out of season, tourist town.  We found our accommodation for the night which was a motel where we had quite a nice big room with some cooking facilities, well I should say a microwave and toaster.

Being greeted by a very friendly receptionist he gave us some details about a couple of trips we could do whilst staying there. After checking what the weather was doing for the next couple of days and finding out that the next day was going to be pretty wet, we decided to book for the trips rather than stay stuck in the motel.

Now that we knew what we were doing for the next couple of days we headed out to have a look around the town.  The waterfront would have been very pretty if it was not so overcast, with loads of little islands out in the bay.

We walked around the town that took all of five minutes, popped into a pound shop where we were lucky enough to find a tape converter for our cassette/radio (yes the car is that old!!) so we could get a jack lead into Shell’s phone for music/talking books. 

After a quick drink in a nearby pub which had some lively locals in it we then headed for another bar/restaurant that we thought we may have dinner in.  It only had a burger menu so we had a glass of draft alcoholic ginger beer before heading back to our motel room, picking up an Indian take-away menu on the way.

As I mentioned NZ seems to be really expensive and after looking at the take-away menu and realising that it was going to cost about £ 30 – 40 for what we wanted we decided to self-cater and go to the local supermarket.

Shell did a sterling job with the microwave and we were soon tucking into scrambled eggs on toast followed by a nasty pot-noodle (Glenn not Shell) and a bit of a chocolate bar (Glenn not Shell).  It doesn’t look promising for culinary delights for the next few weeks!!

The rest of the evening we spent watching a bit of TV and a couple of glasses of wine before having an early-ish night as we had to get up pretty early the next day.

Day 2 – Rain, Rain Go Away!

Today was a coach trip to take us up to the most northerly point of NZ, Cape Reinga.  We had decided to do this trip as it would have been around a 600km round trip in the rain if we did it ourselves and I felt like a break from driving.

It didn’t start that great as we were being picked up around 7am and the weather was cold and very wet, also the coach was about ½ hour late.

We started the journey north in pretty miserable weather and because of this there was not too much to be seen out of the rivulet covered windows, but after an hour we were getting out to get a spot of breakfast, coffee and cake.

On returning to the coach there was then a little spat as the driver pretended to drive off when one of the passengers did not get back on the coach in time.  The person’s travelling companion a Belgium girl took offence to this joke and started hurling abuse at the driver. When her friend finally boarded the coach the driver had words with them, telling them they could get off the tour here if they wanted…they didn’t.  It looks like this coach trip is going to be fun!!

After breakfast we then continued the rest of the way to Cape Reinga (in the rain) whilst the driver/guide gave us all the information on local culture and history along the way.  He also gave us a very detailed history of his life, his wife’s life and his children’s life….very thorough!  Although his soothing voice did mean that Shell and I did have the odd nap along the way.

Arriving at Cape Reinga in torrential rain we were then given the option to walk down to the lighthouse viewpoint where hopefully you would see where the Tasman Sea met The Pacific Ocean which resulted in very large waves.  Given that it was a 20 minute walk in misty/rainy conditions and the fact we couldn’t even see the sea from the edge of the headland we decided to give it a miss. This turned out to be the right decision as when some bedraggled coach mates returned stating they had seen absolutely nothing.

From here we headed to the west coast of the peninsula towards the beach where there were some large sand dunes where we stopped for our next activity…sand boarding.  Luckily the rain had briefly stopped so we got off the coach and grabbed a boogie-board and then tramped to the top of a steep sand dune, well some of us did (Glenn not Shell).  I was the first one up and was told to lie on the board then launch myself down the dune using my feet as brakes. This was very good advice as there was a large cold looking pool just a few feet away at the bottom.  It was really good fun and after a couple more goes we were getting back on the coach again.

Our next destination was 90 mile beach, which isn’t 90 miles as Captain Cook’s ruler wasn’t that accurate, but it was pretty long at around 108km.  We drove onto the beach where we were told we could get off and have a wander around for a bit, it was very windy and wild so we were quite happy to board the coach again 15 minutes later.

Next we stopped for lunch which had been pre-ordered on route and we had some fish and chips in a restaurant alongside a pretty estuary before heading off again.

The next stop was not all that exciting as it was a wood carving shop, the selling point was they used the oldest timber in NZ which meant that everything on show was very expensive.  It included a staircase which was carved out of a very large tree stump that was retailing for $ 2.5 million, needless to say we did not buy anything here.

We then headed back south and our final stop for the day was a small rainforest area where these old trees grew.  It was a small walk around the forest which turned out to be very quick as it was once again raining.

It had been quite a long trip and we arrived back at our motel around 6.00 and as we had spent quite a bit on the trips we decided to self-cater again, Shell managed to rustle up some jacket potatoes and baked beans for dinner (She’s becoming quite a dab-hand with a microwave!).

Day 3 – Boat Trip/Old Mate

The second trip we had booked was a boat trip around The Bay of Islands and started at a more respectable 9.00.  So after a bit of breakfast we headed off to the Jetty to catch the boat.

The weather had improved slightly, well it wasn’t raining, but during the captains briefing he pointed out that it may get a bit rough further out in the bay and we may not be able to get to our final destination of ‘the hole in the wall’, at this point two tourists decided better of it and got off the boat.

For the next couple of hours we cruised around quite a few pretty islands (which would have been a lot prettier if the sun had been shining) whilst the captain gave us the history of the islands we were seeing over they tannoy system.

As predicted the sea started to get more choppy and it wasn’t long before we saw crew members disposing of sick bags and the captain announced that  we would not be going to the ‘hole in the wall’, which wasn’t that disappointing as until a day ago we didn’t even know it existed.  Instead he took us into an Island with a sheltered bay where apparently Dame Kiri Tikanawa (excuse spelling) lives when she is in NZ.

We then headed for another island where we moored up and were allowed to get off and have a look around. As it was bitterly cold and there was a wind blowing, Shell and I just grabbed a coffee from the boat and found a sheltered spot on this island to drink our drinks before returning on-board.

From here we then cruised back through the islands before returning to the jetty in Phihai around 2pm.  We quickly found a sandwich shop to grab a bit of lunch before hitting the road again.

I had arranged to meet up with an old school friend who lived just outside Auckland, so we drove back south to meet him.  The drive was about 2 ½ hours and back through the pretty countryside and we listened to a talking book as we went (already being a bit lazy with the Spanish lessons).

Orewa was the town where my friend lived and when we arrived we checked into a motel, which turned out to be in the top 3 of horrible hotels we have stayed in on this trip. There were guests hanging around outside that looked like the cast of shameless!!  The room itself was not much better and we ensured all our luggage was well locked up before we went out.

We met Greg Bohen (a school friend from the age of 5) in a pub just up the road, I had not seen him for about twenty five years.  As with Yan in Australia we started chatting over a couple of pints about old school mates and teachers and what we had both been up too in the past 25 years. 

Unfortunately Greg had his 14 year old son with him and he had to be up early to take him to school the next day, so he could only stay for a couple of drinks.  As Shell and I did not particularly fancy going back to the Motel of Horror’s we stayed at the pub for a couple more drinks and some pub food.

As I may have mentioned before NZ is very expensive so this drove us back to the Motel for a fairly early night as we decided we should get up very early the next day and head back on the road.