The Bay of Islands is supposed to be one of the best places to visit in New Zealand and we had left it until near the end hoping that it would provide a great finale to the our New Zealand adventure - if you don't count the few days in Auckland that we had to come afterwards.

we had left it until near the end hoping that it would provide a great finale to the our New Zealand camping adventure and I think it was eventaully.

Things started badly when we stopped off at Goat Island for a night. This is described by Lonely Planet as "one of New Zealand's special places" but is described by me as "alright I suppose". It is supposed to be great for snorkling but unfortunately the bad weather had made the sea bed churn up and therefore lose it's clearness so much that the glass bottomed boat that sails daily was not running. So unfortunately all you are left with is a bay that you can't see many fish in. Shame we couldn't stay any longer really but time was a wasting so the next day we bombed up to Paiha which is the gateway to the Bay of Islands.

The weather again appeared to be ready to thwart us, it was Monday afternoon and we we had to be back in Auckland by Friday and the forecast was not good. "Can you hang around a few days" we were asked by a purveyor of sailing trips, "Friday is supposed to be really nice". Buggar!

As things turned out we did hang around for the full time. On Tuesday we headed over to Russell which for about a year around 1840 was the capital of New Zealand until it was moved to Auckland. Not surprising really as around that time it was known as the "hellhole of the Pacific" which isn't really a tag-line to get the settlers rushing over from England. Now it is a sleepy town, we spent a few hours there which was enough, the hi-light being the local museum where I got those fascinatings facts relayed out for you above.

Then on to Watengi (I think that's spelt wrong) which is famous as that is where the Crown and the Maori signed a treaty (The Treaty of Watengi) in 1840 which gave the UK sovereignty of New Zealand. The who-ha over it is still going on with the Maori claiming they were tricked into it as the maori translation differed to the English version. Recently there have been large monetary settlements made over this issue thanks to us Brits paying them about 6pence for a mass of farmland and then sticking a gun in their faces and asking them what they were going to do about it.

Anyway with the rain still coming down we headed to Kerikeri which has very little going for it except a cinema where we watched 'I am Legend' with three other patrons.

Lo and behold on Wednesday it was sunny!! We booked our sailing trip for the next day and drove on North to Doubtless Bay so called because Captain Cook wrote in his diary when sailing past that "this place was doubtless a bay". And he was right. So we sat on Cable Beach for most of the day doing nothing before driving back to Paiha.

The sailing trip was what we had come there for, look at the photos to see why, beautifully clear sea with golden beach fringed islands throughout. Approximately 140 islands in total although only 7 of any size, some of the smaller ones are little more than rocks. The ship we were on was an old sloop that had already sailed around the world and we liked because it was a bit like a pirates of the carribean type boat. The sky was blue the sea was likewise and the sailing was great.

Bravely the captain even let Rhiannon have a go at sailing/driving the boat, she ,must have been at the helm for a good ten or twenty minutes, most of which she spent looking nervous but with her new found daring-do she was not about to hand it over to lesser mortals. And we didn't crash into anything which was excellent. Rhiannon says that it was difficult to sail and you need strong arms (which may have been a dig, I don't know) as it goes one way or the other of it's own accord, she will give you chapter and verse when she see you. I didn't get a go by the way.

Stopping off at an island for a lovely BBQ lunch we had a chance to swing from the yard arm into the sea and have a bit of a swim onto an island where there was a big hill you can climb which we did so as to get the lovely scenic photos like the one above which is one of ours. All in all it was a very good, relaxing trip the only downside being that our fellow passengers seemed to be largely retired couples discussing their homes in Berkshire and where they liked to winter which was a bit annoying and did take away a bit from the 'shiver me timbers' atmos that we were looking for. We hoped that we could make a few land luvvers walk the plank but sadly not so the pasty faced posh folk survived.

That was it, the next day we were to drive back to Auckland and drop the van off. Sad times.