Adventure Is Out There!: BAY OF ISLANDS

Paihia at sunrise

Last week Liam and I made a trip up north to the Bay of Islands. We set off on Tuesday slowly making our way up the picturesque East Coast route. We stopped in Mangawhai Heads for lunch which made for a nice change from driving allowing us to stretch our legs on the beach and breathe in some of that salty sea air. We arrived at our campsite in Paihia at 3pm. The campsite was at the foot of Hururu Falls which was such a lovely sight to wake up to every morning, it would be especially nice in Summer. However, Winter brought us tranquility and an almost empty campsite, true paradise.

Because we made good time getting up to Paihia we decided to spend that evening in Russell. We drove to the car ferry which leaves from Opua to Okiato every half hour and is incredibly efficient. In Russell there wasn't a whole lot to do, it was fairly deserted being the middle of winter and those offshore breezes chilled you to the bone! We did get up to Flagstaff point which had some amazing views of the Bay of Islands. Half the reason for going to Russell was to watch the Russell Birdman festival being hosted that weekend. For those of you who don't know, it's basically a bunch of idiots in costumes jumping off the wharf. Unfortunately I was unaware the main event was Saturday afternoon and had agreed to work that evening instead, so to get back to Auckland in time it meant missing out. Oh well, there's always next year.

Our second day we spent on a tour up to Cape Reinga. Separate post here.

Our final day we did a nearby walk that led from Hururu Falls down to the Waitangi Treaty grounds. We wanted to visit the Treaty grounds anyway so thought the walk would be worthwhile It took longer than expected but the weather was fine and the views looking out to the dense forest of mangroves was pretty cool. At the grounds there were some spectacular view of the surrounding bay and Liam saw his first Maori Cultural performance.