Bay of Islands

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This past weekend I took a mini trip up north to Paihia, Bay of Islands with a friend. When we left we didn't have anything planned, just ideas of things we would like to do. It was more of a relaxing getting away so we didn't want to have to follow a schedule.

We took the Naked Bus to get there which took almost four hours. Once we got there we ate at a cute little restaurant called Titos and then basically went to bed because it was late. The next morning we walked along the beach and explored a little bit on the rocks as we decided what we wanted to do for the day. Then we took the ferry to Russell which was a cute little town right by Paihia. We walked and saw the entire town in about 10 minutes. Here we also explored along the beach and searched for shells. Once we got back to Paihia we went on a little bike ride. This was fun because it's been awhile since I've ridden a bike. Plus, it was a gorgeous view. All of this was fun, however the real highlight of the day was when we went fishing! A guy gave us a good deal on renting all of our fishing equipment and he even took us to a nearby island via boat. It was my friend's first time fishing in her life so that made it a lot more exciting. Also, it was my first time fishing from in island, standing in the water, without a bobber. We actually caught a good amount of decent-sized fish but we only kept one. It was later at night when we were out there so we had a spectacular view of the sun setting over the water and town. The water kept rising toward the island to so we were almost up by the tree by the time we got picked up from the boat.

Once we got back we talked to the guy who rented us everything and he was a very nice and interesting guy. He lives in a yacht that is anchored super close to his shop. He was also saying that he doesn't do his job for the money (obviously since he doesn't make much), he does it to see the smiles on his customers faces. I admire what he does because he's truly doing what he loves. Once we got back to the hostel we cleaned and grilled our fish. (It's a good thing I have always helped me dad clean the fish growing up so I knew how to do it). It tasted pretty good too, even though we didn't have any seasoning on it!

The next day it was very rainy so we couldn't do much. We hiked up the Paihia lookout and had a beautiful view. It was a little foggy but still sweet as. We also walked around to little shops in the area like tourist! Then took our four hour bus ride back to Auckland! It was a very relaxing weekend and I really enjoyed it.

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