Leaving beautiful Paihai we made our way via Kawakawa to Omapere. It is a twin city with Opononi ..a beautiful little place with a huge harbour...no people...no boats! A lovely bush walk to see the view of the coast...very isolated! Scenery on way was rolling hills, lots of sheep and cattle. Not too many mountains to climb for a change...just one big one near the coast. We then drove through kauri forest...24 km...saw lots of trees....did a bush walk to see the o...

Well weather has been cool and cloudy this week...they said Thursday would be the best day so we chose Thursday, our last day, do the Cream Trip hoping they were right...a route used in past to transport cream and other items to and from the islands. The trip we took followed this historic path and delivered supplies to the residents in remote beaches and bays. Well we waited all week and booked our Cream Cruise ship for Thursday as it was the only day the weathe...

Well we watched Pretty Woman last night and I loved it! Up leisurely and off to Russell today. We drove to Opua and took a car ferry across. We went to the museum which had lots of great things in it...lots of Maori tools including fish hooks, 1/5 scale of Cook's Endeavour, whaling day artifacts and video of history of Russell. Russell was the first capital of NZ and was known as the Hell Hole of the Pacific because it's past was full of deserted seamen, runaway ...

Today we were both tired. Slept in....went for walk along beach...lunch at home...I went to library for Internet...just chilled...BBQ at home and watched video...catch up day!

What a superb day we had. We got picked up by coach at our hotel at 7:30 am...still dark outside! We are on our way to the top of New Zealand...the very farthest north you can go! We drove to 90 mile beach where the bus drove 40 miles down the beach! Along the way we stopped and dug for pipis which some ate then and there and others took home to sit overnight in cold water and then steam them and put them in a pasta or salad....I just had fun digging them and giv...