Paihia

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We had set ourselves an ambitious target in terms of driving for the next few days but we had faith Cleatus could deliver. We hit Hamilton at around 5pm that evening in heavy traffic. It was about this point we remembered the All Blacks were playing Canada the following night there and accomodation might not be as easy to come by as we had thought. After a bit of driving around we located a hostel on the main street and snapped up their last two beds. After eating we had a pint in a pub in town and then went to the cinema, Ocean´s 13 .

The next morning we were up early and back on the road heading north to a place called Paihia. This is a jumping off point for the Bay of Islands. The drive was about 400km and the scenery was spectacular for a lot of it. We bypassed Auckland and after making great progress we arrived on a very twisty and seriously hilly road. The little pink car may have frustrated the people stuck behind us on the hills but they always seemed to be laughing when they looked in at us as they overtook us (Very strange hmmm).

We reached Paihia and after getting ourselves a hostel the first thing on the agenda was laundry followed by dinner. We organised a boat trip for the following day and headed to a nearby pub to watch the All Blacks hammer Canada (although it was a better game that we had expected). We had a few beers with a Kiwi we had met and called it a night at a respectable hour.

Another early start (The norm for us since we got to New Zealand it seems) and we drove down to the wharf. We only had the morning in the area so we had chosen to do a fast boat tour. We were suited up in red spay suits (looking very much like fishermen) and were then loaded onto a very impressive looking boat. After leaving the harbour the driver kicked in the engines and we took off. The boat was really fast and we reached the famous hole in the rock in a very short space of time.

The rock is very impressive, even more so when you drive through it. After circling the huge rock we entered the Cathedral cave on the otherside. After that we got absolutely soaked as the boats pounded through the large surf around the rock. We spent about an hour after that touring the bay as our driver explained about some of the islands before getting back to shore.

After a bite to eat and a quick dry off we hit the road again. Along the way we had a very brief stop at Whangarei Falls.

Next stop Auckland...

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Photos

Ronan & Our Lovely Car
It´s Not That Pink Is It????

Comments

[The Dubliners]

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