Bobbi, Sam and I had an early start to make sure we were ready to embark the bus at 7am. I was excited to meet fellow travellers that would hopefully join us for the majority of our New Zealand journey.

The first stop was in Whangadai, which has 270km of coastline characterised by irregular rocky headlands, sheltered harbours, sandy bay and tidal mud flats it was the perfect location to stop and grab lunch and supplies for the Easter weekend.

Bay of islands
We arrived in Paihia at 12 noon and took a walk along the beach. Before a group of us headed on a walk (trek) to Haruru Falls. The tour guide gave us the wrong guidance as the walk took us four hours rather then an hour and half! My feet were definite going to suffer as I was not prepared!!

We then all enjoyed a few beverages and the hostels BBQ before heading to Cape Regina the following morning. We stopped at Cape Regina lighthouse at New Zealand's northern most tip, where the Tasman Sea meets the mighty Pacific Ocean. Speed along the shores of ninety mile beach, dig for Pipi and experienced sand boarding down massive dunes at Te Paki Stream. It was well worth it we had a fantastic day and the tour guide was brilliant.

That evening some of the group had a few too many...I called it a night at midnight as the alarm always set for 6.30 am as I had chosen to check out New Zealand's highest Parasail.

The parasail was incredible, I went first as I was the only person riding solo. It was a perfect morning, I enjoyed the breathtaking views of the Bay of Islands as the sun was rising. I sat back, stunned how peaceful and quiet it was in the air.

After that I joined some of the others and headed over to Russell island. Russell island was the closest island from Paihia and was home to the oldest pub in New Zealand. I found the way to the view point of the island, it was worth a visit!

The ferries from Paihia to Russell Island departed every 20minutes so we easily caught the ferry back to ensure we made our bus departure at 2.15pm.

The bus took us back to Auckland were we stayed in Nomads for the night before heading south! To avoid waiting in the check in queue we had it all planned out. Bobbi waited for our bags at the bus whilst Sam and I checked us in so we were garnered a room together and bottom bunks!