We arrived at the Bay of Islands, New Zealand by tender, our ship is too large to dock at the harbour. It's our first time to New Zealand and it looks beautiful, although called the Bay of Islands, Paihai is not an island, there are 144 islands surrounding it and secluded bays with superb marine life in this North Island region.

The Bay of Islands is popular for fishing, sailing and tourism and we spotted half a dozen dolphins swimming around our ship when we arrived.

Our excursion today is to the Waitangi Treaty and National Park including a drive around the north countryside. Waitangi translates to "weeping water". We headed north to Keri Keri, a pretty town, with neat rows of shops and through the vinyards and onwards past the kiwi growing on the trees.

The tour guide was great and told us about the kiwi bird, but we didn't see any, they only come out at night. At the Keri Keri basin we saw the old stone store and Kemp House, New Zealand's oldest building. After a couple of panaramic stops we head to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. On 6th February 1840 the Waitangi treaty was signed here between the Maoris and the British Crown.

We visited the Treaty House and the Maori carvings before a close up of the Ngatokimatawharorua, one of the world's longest Maori ceremonial war canoes, 117 feet in length.

Paihai is the town at the end of our tour. We jumped onto the ferry to take us to Russell, the old capital and one of the oldest towns in New Zealand. Our lunch stop was at the Crusty Crab for some deep fried bluenose fish, yum! We finished our stop in Russell with a visit to the oldest church in New Zealand before our quick trip back to our ship for our onward journey to Auckland.