Bay of Islands

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We left Coromandel and the lovely peninsula and headed north. Our next stop would take us to Russell in the Bay of Islands. This was a reasonably long drive of about 6hrs which included going up through Auckland. We decided to take the coastal route with the expectation that it would be more scenic but we were a little disappointed. There were very few spots where you could see the sea and the road was very windy and nausea inducing. The weather on the drive up wasn’t the greatest and we went through some rain but as we arrived in Russell it brightened up and turned into a wonderful afternoon.

Russell is a very nice little town. It is home to NZ oldest church and is almost entirely surrounded by water. The town is picturesque with most of the houses seeming to have white picket fences. We went up to Flagstaff Hill just on the outskirts of town and got a wonderful panorama of the town, the surrounding bays and the dozens of islands that give the place its name. From there we headed down to Long beach where I went for a swim in the waves. The water here is a lot warmer than the South Island.

The next day we caught a ferry across to the bay to save ourselves driving all the way around and then explored the rest of the coast heading north until we finally got to 90 Mile Beach. From here the beach runs (not quite 90 miles) up to the very top of the North Island. The rest of the day was spent making our way back to Russell. This part of country is different to the rest that we have seen. It is more sub-tropical and sparsely populated but the scenery is just a beautiful.

Tomorrow is our last full day in New Zealand as we make our way back to Auckland before we fly out on Saturday. We have really enjoyed our time in this beautiful part of the world. The people have been fantastic, the scenery wonderful and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. Our next stop is Hawaii where hopefully Duncan will be able to update you on our adventures.

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