Blogs from Paihia, Bay of Islands, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania
May 25th 2012
Northland: Paihia- Maori meaning place of many pas (hill forts). Once there were many tribal wars. Every time blood was spilt, the tribes left the pa to find another. While built for defence, the main function of most pā was for the safe storage of food in pits, especially kumara, a sweet potato. They would dry out the kumara and bury it, then as they travelled they could always source food. These days Paihia is a bustling tourist town, with a ferry to Russell. the old capital of NZ, population of 2000 which rises to 70, 000 in the summer months. Paihia is the gateway to the Bay of islands and Cape Reinga, the very top of the North island. Russell, these days is a sleepy small town with around 1000 people. It has an interesting ... read more
Waitomo and Paihia.
Published: May 12th 2012Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands » Paihia
May 12th 2012
Kia Ora everyone! I've been in New Zealand for a week now and I've managed to squeeze quite a lot in. Unfortunately I don't have time to visit the South island, as I'm only here for 10 days in total, which is a shame but there's always next time! When I last blogged I was staying in a hostel dorm for four people, but I was all on my own for the first couple of days I was in there - it sounds like a good thing, but actually I was starting to get pretty bored. Auckland is not a super interesting city to wander around by yourself for days on end, and there's not all that much to do here either. Fortunately I had booked to go to a trip to the Waitomo glowworm caves ... read more
Bay of Islands
Published: May 10th 2012Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands » Paihia
May 9th 2012
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 ... read more
Easter weekend at the Bay of Islands
Published: May 4th 2012Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands » Paihia
May 4th 2012
Easter weekend at the Bay Of Islands Easter is not only good for eating a lot of chocolate and hot cross buns, the best off it all are 4 days off work! So I packed my bags to have a wee holiday at the beautiful Bay of Islands. I went with the Nz backpacker bus "Stray" , because they offer a great short trip (Patch pass) to see the Northland in 4 days - perfect for a long weekend! So off we went in the little red bus from Auckland city to Paihia. We had a great stop at a huge Kauri tree on our way. I have seen many of those trees in NZ already but this was definitely the most impressive one. Our driver told us so many great stories about the region and ... read more
Paihia & Cape Reinga
Published: May 10th 2012Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands » Paihia
April 28th 2012
28th April ’12 On to Paihia, The Bay of Islands I was kind of sad to be leaving Rotoroa as I had really enjoyed my time there. Today was just spent travelling and it took us about 6 hours to get up to Pihai in the Northland. Once we got near the Bay of Islands and into Pihai we were in lovely coastal scenery with lots of little islands and sheltered coves. After checking into our motel – The Dolphin which we chose as it was within a few minutes walk of the shops and harbour (it could not be described as a town) and was also offering a 3 nights for the price of 2 deal which was a bargin! We had a look around the handful of souvenir shops, a few eating places, the ... read more
Bay of Islands and the 16,000ft Sky Dive
Published: April 17th 2012Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands » Paihia
April 15th 2012
After a great week in Auckland we decided to book ourselves onto a bus to travel 3 hours North of Auckland to the bay of islands which is a collection of over 100 different sized islands and bays. We had also bought a discounted coupon online (similar to groupon) that entitled us to a half price 16,000ft skydive at the Sky Dive Zone centre in the bay of islands. We caught the bus on the morning of Tuesday 10th to Paihia, when we arrived the weather was great and we spent the afternoon exploring the town and some of the coastline. Our skydive was booked for the next day but when we woke up the weather wasn't great and it only got worse throughout the day, we had to reschedule for the day after (Thursday 12th). ... read more
Paihia, paradise
Published: April 11th 2012Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands » Paihia
April 9th 2012
My Piece of paradise, they say home is where the heart is, well mine is back in England, but im leaving a tiny piece here, we are coming back, and if it works we are coming to stay, Ta Ta for now Sam x... read more
New Zealand - Cape Reinga and the Bay of Islands - Hitting the most northern part of NZ with a little bit of sand boarding and a chance to meet some very “special” locals.
Published: April 27th 2012Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands » Paihia
April 2nd 2012
New Zealand – Cape Reinga and the Bay of Islands – Hitting the most northern part of NZ with a little bit of sand boarding and a chance to meet some very “special” locals. After a great time in Auckland it was time to head North, my bus arrived and was a beautiful, subtle shade of bright orange with a driver called Bear. I was hoping it was going to be a Bear Grills experience but as it turned out I think he got his name because he hated getting up off his arse! I guess he’s in the right job then. As we headed out to the Bay of Islands I started to get to know my fellow passengers and the group turned out to be a cool bunch so all was going well. The ... read more
Bay of Islands & KawaKawa
Published: March 16th 2012Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands » Paihia
March 16th 2012
In Bay of Islands (de naam zegt het al zelf: Baai van Eilanden) gingen we de route af en bezochten we allemaal kleine stranden. De ene was al populairder dan de andere en op sommige stukken konden we helemaal alleen wandelen. Ook vonden we nog een ander strandje dat afgelegen was en bijna van iemand privé. Niemand liep door het hoge gras dus niet iedereen kon genieten van het prachtig uitzicht langs de andere kant van de baai. Wij waren er alleen op het kiezelstrand. We zagen verschillende kayakkers en een groot halfuur later vonden ze de weg naar ons privé strandje ook. Het was tijd voor ons om te vertrekken en richting KawaKawa te gaan. KawaKawa is gekend voor zijn Hundertwasser toiletten. Hundertwasser heeft daar zo'n 14 jaar gewoond in dit dorpje en is daar ... read more
New Zealand Part 1
Published: March 5th 2012Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands » Paihia
March 5th 2012
Hi Everyone, It has now been about a week in NZ so we have lots of stories to tell. We landed in Auckland and had one night before we set off on the kiwi experience. We headed off to the Bay of Islands at 7:30am with a longish drive ahead of us. We had decided on the bus that we would do the eco adventure boat tour, which allowed us to drive out into the bay and swim with dolphins. We didn't have much time when we arrived so set off straight away on the boat. We weere warned that as these animals were wild that we may not be ableto see or swim with them, however, we got to see them and a big group at that. It took a while but eventually we found ... read more
