BAY OF ISLANDS and the surrounding area

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DATE VISITED: 10, 11 DECEMBER 07 We continued our plan of heading north on the long and windy New Zealand coastal highway and by-passed a couple of backpacker bases but to be honest they looked a bit of a dump! - shops were closed lining the central road through the town - which often reminded me of those mid-west cowboy type 'towns' or some remote hill-billy hamlet. Some of these places are quaint in places - decent colourful wooden houses with the odd church to brighten it up but generally not my cup of tea!

We swiftly by-passed these and cought a quick car ferry to Russell which was like taking a trip back through time to England in the 1950's. Walking around this sweet little town was more like strolling on a film set in Granada Studios! The front itself was lined with lush little trees and colourful fishing boats, a small pier and a collection of modest sea-view eateries and private wooden houses with their wooden varandas (almost like you see on Prince Edward Island or somwhere New England)... All you could hear was the gentle splash from the waves or the varied bird song from the trees (I have tried to record some of their songs as they are awesome).

Walking around we discovered pretty old fashioned buildings and scenes of old england e.g the corner shop, Victorian park benches, little picnic greens , a police building, tiny firestation and corner petrol pumps (miniature)! I loved this place. The old worldliness of it, the peace and quiet- no wonder it makes for a popular day trip to relax. Russell without doubt makes for a lovely weekend escape and has the best of a small quiet English seaside town with (the quaint and good!) aspects of Badega Bay from Hitchcock the Birds' !!

Our visit was topped with a stay at Barry's - a lively chap whom we shared his quirky bungalow with at the top of th hill (Seaview included)! 😊

The weather was cloudy warm with showers - it didnt really improve despite the 4 hr drive from Auckland (also cloudy and rainy on our last day there) . Outbreaks of sunshine reminded us of the heat and burn from the sun here (very noticeable!) but generally it was a bit crap - and certainly not the sort of weather you wanted to do one of these amazing island cruises in the Bay. Instead - and to give time for the weather to brighten up we headed to West to visit an ancient Kauri Forest - some of these trees are between 1000 and 2000 yrs old with the widest trunks you have ever seen (a diameter/gerth of upto 5/6 metres in width!) I tried to capture these on camera but it just didn't do the size and enormity of these trees justice! Its a shame that 95% of these amazing forest trees were logged in the last century and since - but now Kiwi's are trying to hang on to whats left by preserving these giants and halting the logging.

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Photos

Barry's place - view over Russell
This road was outside our place and in the background you might be able to see the colourful boats and bay

A huge Kaori Tree!
If you see the people in view it puts the width of its trunk in context!

6 metres wide!
Another BIG trunk!

The Kauri Kingdom, near Russell
An idea for Ben's Dad!...