New Years - Bay of islands, Paihia

---

This was out luxury stay of the trip. Again we had been behind on finding accomodation, and it turned out that New Years was even busier than Christmas, because everyone (many pleople) stay at home for Christmas, but go on summer holidays after. I had stryggled for days searching all over the North Island for something appropriate, and in the end it was Nick who found this website for time-share, where we contacted this guy directly. We ended up letting his week of time share in an appartment four times the size of the room we had just checked out of. It had a pool, lots of local families on holiday, and plenty of fun and games.

Paihia was busy, touristy and noisy. Totally opposite of chilled out Russel, just on the other side if the bay. The sun was shining brught all week. It’s really strong (as in totally different from anything you’d get in a normal european summer), and the burn time was about 15 mins. Which meant we stayed in more, and I once again got reminded that I’m not super good at just chilling when we get to day three… Argh. But a nearby coatal walking track made great praktice for some technical trail running. No matter where we go, there are awesome trails with the most amazing view.

We invited some of the other guests in the complex for New Years. It’s the earliest I’ve ever entered the new year. Fun fact: I’ve celebrated New Year’s Eve in 8 different time zones.

Best day was Ollie’s birthday (Jan 2^nd). She had been allowed to choose the schedule of the day, and the planning had stated when we were still in Denmark. She had the perfect day with pancakes, cirkus show, pool time, board games, ice cream and her choice of restaurant. She was very brave and volunteed as both a warm up dancer before the show, It was awesome!

---

Photos

The pool - we have the corner appartment in the back
Christmas presents now in use