Paihia March 2nd - 5th

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So i haven't entirely finished my time in paihia (pie here) but i dont think i will be doing anything of any note probably watch the all whites vs mexico and then an early one as got to get the bus at 8.

i love it up here the hole town is right on the beach and we've been having great weather most of the time ive been here and no tsunami as of yet. The bus from whangarei was delayed and then we never really made good time coming uo here either so never got here til around 3 on tuesday. walked into town and had a short walk along the beach before going back to my room around 6:30. Met the 2 people that were in there a girl from St Louis and Tom from Gallway. Tom and I went and got some dinner and then to a bar for a few drinks we ended up talking to a dutch couple and then two more irish lads joined our group so there was a good group of us bu the end of the night. when we got back to the hostel an other older lady had joined our dorm but was already asleep. In the night the older lady, who we dont no where is from and doesnt speak any english at all, was up and down and making a right racket.

Was woken up at around 630 the next morning by the older lady again who's alarm went of about 5 times before she left and when it went of she didnt stop it for about a minuite each time. When she left i managed to get back to sleep until around 10. When i woke up i went for a walk to further around the coast where i found another nice beach and a few small stores and bakeries. Further down the beach was a turn off for the start of State Highway 11 and about 250 yards down was a supermarket so i went and got some food to coo for dinner and then returned to the hostel. after i had russled up some pasta for lunch i went and had a lie on the beach and a swim in the ocean for a couple of hours. after i had cooked yet more pasta for my tea i headed out to catch the end of the black caps vs australia but only watched it for around 20mins as it was looking like a bit of an walk over. returned to the hostel again and there were 3 new people in the dorm and the american had left. me and tom both said we had seen the older woman walking up and down the street in the same place at various points of the day talking to her self and have such decided she was a bit crazy. the 3 new people were a french guy who was travelling with his brother but as they hadnt booked the hostel there ws only room for them with one bed each in two different rooms and he seemed nice but wasnt great at english and there was a brother and sister from sweden who both spoke quite good english and were a good laugh so me, tom and the two swedes sat in the room and talked for a while before an early night. the crazy lady came in making loads of noise again around 10mins after we had turned the lights off as though she had been waiting for us to do so.

this morning was an early one with first the woman making noise again and then tom as he was getting the 8 o'clock bus to auckland (the same one im getting tomorrow) again though i managed to get back to sleep for an hour or so and was awake at around 9. i had a real treat when i woke up the second time as the old woman had hung a pair of shorts about one foot from my face and they stank of stale piss so i didnt dare touching them. that certainly did blow away the cobwebs though and i was soon up and away. started the day with by walking to the waitangi treaty grounds which is where the treaty for the maoris to give power to the british was signed and they had a few other small exhibits but it certainly was not worth the $20 entry fee by any stretch. then i walked up the road and along the 5KM track to hururu falls i had always planned to do this today and so i dont know why i wore them but i was in my flip flops and my feet are now ridiculously saw after probably a total of 13km in them today. the walk itself was nice and had a canopy which led through the mangroves but the falls were not worth the pain however when i was walking around and skipping from rock to rock above them there was some TV company filming something which i hadn't realised until i was walking back across and they had a presenter and what not with them so i may end up on NZ's TV's at some point in the future we'll just have to wait and see. Anyway the walk back was an absolute killer i decided it might be a bit quicker to walk back along the road which turned out to be the SH11 as noted before so there was no pavement just gravel and broken glass along the road side. it was this walk however which led me to decide that kiwi's are definately the nicest people on the planet. I was walking down this road and four people pulled over to see if i needed a lift, the first was a maori looking guy around 40 in a slightly beaten up car and perhaps slightly racist of me i thought this was slightly dodgy and so declined i also declined the next three but am now wishing i hadnt as it was around a 45 mins walk from where i was first offered a lift to the supermarket i had been in the day earlier. once again i went to the supermarket and stocked up as im thinking it may be harder to find one in hamilton tomorrow. when i got back i went to the beach again then russled up another mean pasta and tinned tomatoes.

just a note took a break mid blog and watched the all whites they lost 2 - 0

going to try and upload some photos as well so the others from NZ should have them aswell by the time you've read this.

PS for those who dont know if you subscribe to the blog then you get an email every time i update

hope everyone is well

disco

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