After one month of wwoofing and one month in the same area, we were really excited to start using our bus pass.
We left Whangarei in a Stray-bus. It was the first time we used the bus pass “Everywhere” and were positiv surprised by the friendly driver who even drove us to the campground in Waitangi.
The following days were filled with exploration in Paihia. The first day we took one of the beautiful bush walks to Opua, but we calculated the distance wrong and ended up doing a 27km (!) trip instead of 17km. We saw a lot of the bays and beaches the Bay of Islands has to offer, but at some point our legs were just too tired to enjoy them for long. At the end of the day we just fell fast asleep in our tent.
We did a bus tour to Cape Reinga, the most nothern point of New Zealand and a spiritual place important to the Maori. They believe it is the point where your soul enters the journey to the afterlife when they die. Also it is the place where two oceans, the Tasman sea and the pacific ocean meet. On our way to get there we drove over the 90 Mile Beach, which is exactly 55 miles long, and had a chance to try sandboarding, which was real fun!
Russel, which lays right across from Paihia, is called the hellhole of the Pacific, because of the city’s past where traders and pirates walked, drank and lived there. It takes just a few mintues by ferry to get there, but we were quite a bit disappointed by the small tourist village in front of us, when we stepped from the ferry into Russel. The village seems to have fallen asleep and it is actually quite boring, if you got lured there by it’s exciting past. The only things reminding you of the past are the small museum and the bullet holes in the walls of the church. Russel might have been the real life Tortuga we know from the Pirates of the Caribbean, but now it is just a few shops, restaurants and a nice view. Nevertheless, I have to admit that it had amazing ice cream, we tried triple chocolate, maple-walnut, salted caramel and white-chocolate-raspberry . It was one of the best so far!
A nice, not too long, walk is from Waitangi to the Haruru falls. On 10km you see a wide range from local bush to mangrove forest. We spend quite some time having lunch at the falls and enjoying the view.
It was amazing, how easy we got in touch with other campers and travellers back at the campground, especially with the german family we met. They even invited us for a great BBQ evening. Most travellers we talked to were very polite, friendly and open, making it a joy to talk to them and exchanging experiences.
We had our own little Halloween party at the beach, surrounded by seagulls (scary animals 😉 ), with fish and chips and more ice cream, at the end of our stay. It was a nice way to spend our last evening in Paihia and the Bay of Islands.
The next morning we made our way to Auckland for a short stop by bus. We left Auckland early the morning after. Now we are on a peninsula famous for being the Kiwi’s favourite holiday destination.
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