And now, the end is near!

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Couldn't resist quoting the late great Frank Sinatra! but here I am, the last leg, the last 10 days of my epic journey. So where do I spend it? Paihia! Lovely little town North of Auckland, not much going on but the same can be said for many of the towns I'v stayed in along my journey. The thing is, that's not what New Zealand is all about. I have loved every minute of my time here in New Zealand and Paihia was no different. Yes, the rain kind of put a dampener on things for the first few days but I don't suppose it would have mattered where I was, the rain tends to do that. In fact my welcome back from Australia was a little offputting to say the least. The rain never stopped and consequently even though I wore my very fashionable rain cape! I got absolutely drenched on the hike from the hostel to the supermarket and back. If I had to criticise New Zealand in any way it would be that as space is not an issue, everything is spread out so again it's at least a 3 mile hike to the supermarket and back. Anyway with very little money left, what do I do? Well, I walked and walked, then I'd sit on the beach and read, then I walked a bit more! I have no idea how many miles I did in total but on one particular day I walked at least 10 miles on a round trip to Haruru Falls via Waitangi. For me, that was some walk but I have been training for it for a while now. The walk was lovely, starting off along the coast then through the forest before walking through the mangroves. I thought it would be good to do a round trip and carried on back to Paihia a different route but it was along the roadside and although it was shorter it definitely wasn't very pleasant. My advice, retrace your steps and enjoy the mangroves again.

The views in Paihia were great, overlooking the islands, even though I couldn't get to got out on the water. The rain finally abated for my last 2 days and so I thought I'd spend some time on the beach, topping up the tan before returning to a not very sunny England. Got a little burnt but apart from the squealing kids it was great - just sad. Had a wander down to the beach on my last day to watch a sand-castle building competition run by the local radio station, well, it was the school christmas holidays. Again, sand-castles at Christmas? No, I just can't get used to it. Christmas is for building snowmen not sand-castles!! Despite that it was a good last day in sunny Paihia.

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Photos

Paihia's quaint library
Even though the librarian was an idiot!

Sitting on top of the bay!
Song title's - I can't resist

Haruru Falls
I'll grant you they're not Niagra or Victoria but they are the only horse-shoe falls in the southern hemisphere - apparently

My journey comes to an end
My last night in Paihia before the trip home