Blogs from Paihia, Bay of Islands, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 37

After the excitement of the buggy driving we spent the afternoon on what we thought we be a more sedate form of transport - HORSES! With neither of us having ridden before, it was probably a little fool hardy to go on horses which would see us trekking over 10km and 1.5 hours through steep valley terrains and hills. We were looking forward to it, more so Caroline, but left feeling dissapointed as the whole time Caroline spent in fear as the instructors had not given her clear instructions on how to ride the horse and the horses took us over some very steep inclines/declines and we felt at any moment like we were going to fall off or be bucked off. While the ride was meant to be 1.5 hours long we only lasted about ... read more

We set off early this morning (7am) after a 12 hour sleep and after stopping at the supermarket for supplies and a cool bag to carry them in we visited the Wharangei falls which were really quite stunning. After a short walk around the falls we drove a further 50km east out to Wharangei Heads along the coastal route and went off for a stroll along Ocean Beach, which was the icest beach I have seen in NZ yet. The only beach as well, but still by far the nicest so far! :) After witessing some local school kids boarding down the sand dunes we headed back to the car we made breakfast on the back seat and sat watching the waves crash against the prsitine shoreline! We drove a further 100km up the coast to ... read more

Day 30 I had to awake pretty early to catch my plane on to New Zealand so it was lucky there was a guy in my room named Steve who was getting the same flight so we were sure one of us would wake up the other one if people were sleeping in. We didn't book a taxi to the airport because the desk staff assured us it would be absolutely no problem to catch one when we were ready and we'd only need an hour and a half before take-off to check-in. Fiji time prevailed and of course there was no taxi, so we waited, and waited and finally got lucky enough to grab one which managed to get us to the airport just 45 minutes before our plane had to leave. After security and ... read more

So I caught the Intercity bus at lunchtime because I didn't get sorted to catch the early one. However this allowed me to watch England get done over by the All Blacks. It was great to see the Haka after seeing it at the cultural performance the previous day. The ride north was really scenic and I arrived at the small seaside town of Paihia in the evening. I checked into the Pickled Parrot hostel that had been recommended to me. This is a great little place with a central patio and very sociable seating arrangements suitable for chatting and meeting new people. I went on the "Cream Trip" cruise around the bay on my first full day in the area. This is the route that the boat has always taken around the bay since the ... read more