Day 34: Bay of Islands, New Zealand

This morning started out very rainy so we let our intrepid friends go off on a half-day boat tour without us and started our morning slowly, with a load of laundry washed in the pay machines here at the motel. This was the view from our balcony at 7am just before the rain started.




The weather cleared up completely by 10am so we drove to nearby Haruru Falls, where I got a picture of a rainbow and a strange guy also trying to take a picture of it.




Then we walked about 2.5 km on a wooded path that winds along the river and then goes through a mangrove forest. Here is Frank on the path through the mangroves.




After walking the 2.5 km back to the car, we drove to a lookout point with views of some of the bays and islands (apparently there are 144 islands in the Bay of Islands).






I took a turn at the wheel and drove us down to the wharf in town to pick up Archana and Richard from their boat tour. On the way, we passed one of many kiwi warning signs so I made Frank get out and take a picture. We haven't yet seen any kiwis, and aren't likely to apparently, but I think they look adorable and I love these signs.




We all drove about 20min to the town of Kerikeri where we had lunch at the Marsden Estate Winery, which was beautiful. Here is the view from the restaurant - a lake and gardens area with the vineyard behind.






After lunch, we drove around Kerikeri and saw a few historical spots, including the oldest stone building and oldest wooden house, which was the first mission house in NZ. Here is the view of them as seen from the hilltop area where an old Maori fort used to be.




We explored some of the local craft stores that the area is known for and then came back to Paihia and had a drink in one of the restaurants on the wharf. As we are all still a little jet lagged, it was a low key evening of pizza at the motel. Tomorrow we head to Auckland.

Note: I forgot to congratulate everyone who said that the mystery animal from the Machu Picchu blog was a chinchilla.

ILM