Northland - Bay of Islands

After returning from the Coromandel we chilled in Auckland for another couple of nights then loaded up 'the rhonda' for a trip north to the province immediately north of Auckland, imaginatively titled 'Northland'.

(later, in the south island, we also spent time in Southland and Westland, but we've yet to find Eastland...)

First stop was some snorkelling just offshore at Goat Island, where the quantity of fish to be seen is supposed to be amazing. Well it would have been, had there not been storms in the pacific, churning up all the water and reducing visibility to about a metre. Bah, we thought (well I did, Hannah didn't even get in the water - to be fair it was a bit chilly) and drove on.

Just before the Bay of Islands we paused at Kawakawa to visit the famous 'hundertwasser toilets'. They are some public loos. Designed by an austrian called hundertwasser. They are Kawakawa's claim to fame. We left within five minutes. (to be fair, they were probably the nicest loos we visited in the whole of NZ, and this is a country that likes a clean loo).

We camped at Paihia for two nights at a little site next to a secluded beach directly on the Bay of Islands. On the first morning we awoke to the sound of rain on canvas (well, composite plastic sheet at least) and promptly didn't show for the dolphin-watching tour we'd booked (ha ha - foolish tourism operators - if you'd taken my credit card number we would have showed!). As it was, the weather improved and we took a ferry ride to the pretty little town of Russell (once the capital of NZ, unbelievably), got a dose of history and culture innit at the Waitangi treaty grounds, and booked an all-in catamaran sailing, dolphin swimming, island snorkelling, and sausage eating trip for the next day - which was awesome. The dolphins, however, were not prepared to let us swim with them as they were feeding. No problem, a fair few (a joint pod of about 30) swam alongside the cat and performed a few dips and dives. Fab.

On the way back to Auckland we stopped for Fush & Chups in a nowhere town called Wellsford. The chip shop was decorated like an old english tea room, run by a Chinese woman, and we ate our dinner watching a huge Maori guy polish off his egg & chips. (sorry, eegg & chups).

R & H