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Published: April 13th 2007
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Paihia Pacific Hotel
The place where we stayed at Paihia. 5 April 2007 (Thursday)
Today, Chief and I decided to stroll on the streets of Auckland Central. During the course of our walk, we identified that our favourite place in town is "Whitcoulls", a bookstore situated in Queen Street. We browsed through some of their huge range of books and got so impressed with their set-up. Unlike in Sydney where it seems that you are not encouraged to read the books while inside the bookstore, Whitcoulls even provides you available seats and tables to encourage potential readers or buyers the chance to scan through and read all the books that one desires to read. I am very happy with Chief since he now shows signs of being a great reader. His ambition is to one day become a writer like his cousin (Tita Agnes Apeles' daughter). Do you know that he has been showing everyone in his school the book "Women Warriors" and also telling his classmates that his cousin is the one who wrote the book.
We got our rental car from the dealer ilate in the afternoon n order that we can have an early start the next day for our big trip to the Bay
Paihia Pacific Hotel - Another Angle
Another view of the hotel that we stayed in. of Islands.
6 April 2007 (Holy Friday)
Obviously, we all had a sleep in. We were previously thinking of a 7:00am departure but lo and behold we were 3 hours late on our schedule.
Due to our laziness, we experienced heavy traffic when we left Auckland Central at 10:00am. It took us 3 to 4 hours to manouvre our way to the Bay of Islands. Along the way, we noticed the following things about New Zealand:
a) The land is greener as compared to Australia (obviously due to the drought in Oz),
b) The roads are narrower. Bel if you think the streets in Sydney are almost the same as Manila then you will have the surprise of your life here in Auckland. Their streets are smaller here.
c) Even though the streets are narrower there seems to be not much of a traffic. Except for our experience in encountering traffic on our way to the Bay of Islands, we have not experienced any other bumper to bumper traffic.
d) It is easy to get back on track if you get lost while driving since there are alternate routes. For example, if
Hole in the Rock
Photo os the family with Hole in the Rock as the backdrop. you inadvertently drive through their harbour bridge, it is quite easy to manouvre your way back to your original point of destination. No tolls, no hassles.
e) The cows are obese.
f) The terrain is similar to NSW. The only difference is that our land in Australia is vast and much wider.
g) The place is very clean. Honestly, I have not seen a single trash yet but I know that eventually I will see one. Adjunct to this is the fact that "I HAVE NOT SEEN ANY FLIES (LANGAW)". Note: Not a single one. I also have not seen any cockroach yet that is why I was so amazed that they are selling anti-pest sprays in the shops.
h) The comfort room or bathrooms are soooooooooooooooo cleeeeeeaaaaaaaaaan (Limpio Kaayo). Even the public toilets are outstanding. How do they do it? I dont know yet. Once I get to the bottom of this, I will tell all of you. We also dined in a Chinese restaurant on our way to Paihia and their toilet was so impressive. I have not been to a chinese restaurant that clean.
i) Adventures abound! Bungy jumping, speed boating, you
A view on the coast of Paihia
Photo in the shores of Paihia name it are all here.
j) The sceneries are eye-catching. Walang tatalo. I was even comparing it with Oahu Hawaii and I was telling myself that this is the reason why a lot of Americans are visting NZ and it is because it is really beautiful.
k) I will add more observations as I go through updating everyone on our adventures here in NZ.
We have taken a host of photos in the Bay of Islands for everyone to see. "Res Ipsa Loquitur" in Latin. Translation: The thing speaks for itself.
We stayed in the Bay of Islands in a very nice hotel. We paid NZ$159 a night. Though it may be quite expensive, I still think that it is value for money since this is peak season (lots of tourists) - Photos of the place can be seen in this entry. Since it was Holy Friday, we desisted from eating any meat thus we ate most of the day fish and chips (pronounced Fush and Chups by Kiwis).
We joined the Fullers ferry tour of the Bay of Islands (i.e. Cape Brett "Hole in the Rock tour" and it cost us NZ125.00 for the
whole family. Not bad considering that if we paid individually it would have cost us a total of NZ$170. The whole tour with a stop-over on an island (i.e. Urupukapuka Island) for about an hour had a duration of 4 hours. You would not even notice the time since you will all be engrossed viewing the beautiful coastal sceneries at the Bay of Islands.
When we were in Urupukapuka Island, we had the oppotunity to join in a submarine adventure. For 20 minutes, we got to see the bottom of the bay and saw a wide array of fish. Yup, I am not joking "underwater". This was really value for money since we only paid NZ$20 for the whole family. Unbeatable right!
The photos found in this entry are as follows:
a) Photos taken of Paihia
b) Photos taken of Russell (a historic and quaint place in the Northland region
c) Photos taken of the hole in the rock
d) Photos taken of the bay of islands
e) other beautiful photos that we can take during our stayin the Bay of Islands
7 April 2007
We left Paihia for Auckland Central on Saturday afternoon in
order that we can go to mass early on Easter Sunday in the City.
In going back, I got the opportunity to drive the Ford Focus vehicle that we hired. Previously, Pinky had the first go in driving straight from Auckland City to Paihia. It took us roughly 3 hours for our trip back to our apartment. The cost of the petrol is approximately NZ$70 to NZ$80 for the return trip
One word to describe our stay in the Bay of Islands - "AMAZING".
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Glen
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Great Photos Ronald
The Bay of Islands will definitely be on the agenda when we visit NZ.