August 15th (Saturday) - Day 166 - Paihia (Bay of Islands)
No time to stop in Auckland, we were straight on the next bus. We were heading up north to the Bay of Islands and the most historically significant place in New Zealand. Most of the early history and settlement began in the far north. It was raining when we left Auckland but it got brighter the further north we went. Along the way we had to decide what to do for our 3 days in Paihia. We really wanted to do a full days sailing trip but they only run in the summer. Hence we had to settle for a half day trip on Monday. Once we arrived in Paihia we dumped our bags and went out for a wander around the town. There was not a huge amount to do in the town itself so we decided to go for a walk. We had been told about an excellent lookout about 30 minutes away in the forest. As soon as we set off it started to rain but it was not too bad as we were walking through the woods. Just before we arrived at the top it stopped; then as soon as we reached the top it started again. We rode it out for 10 minutes which was the best thing we could do. It soon cleared up and left us with a stunning view of all the islands out in the bay. We stayed for quite a while at the top taking it all in before heading back down again. We had another look around town before heading back to the hostel. We urgently needed to do some washing before Fiji so put that on and waited in the hot tub for it to finish. We cooked some dinner and then had an early night.

August 16th (Sunday) - Day 167 - Paihia
As part of our bus trip we got a free day trip to visit Cape Reinga (far north tip of New Zealand) along with a few sites along the way. We got picked up and then had to drive around to pick the rest of the people up. Weirdly enough at one hotel the people thought it would be fine to bring all their luggage with them. We then had to wait while they put it into storage. The trip would normally start with a trip around some of the only natural forest remaining in New Zealand but instead we had to push on to 90 mile beach as we had to time it right with the tide. It didn't help that we had to pick up some people in the middle of nowhere that had been told the wrong time. When we arrived we found out they were still at church so we had to wait for them. Luckily they came back about 20 minutes before the time they were told. We had a quick stop so people could pick up a mid morning snack and headed off for the beach. The beach is named 90 mile beach but in reality it is only 60 miles long. They driver told us loads of stories of how the beach got it name (it was measured by cows walking - hence its out by a third) and quite a few Maori creation stories. We drove almost the whole length of the beach, stopping near the north end to get out for some pictures. Some people even went digging for shell fish - one lady had a whole plastic bag full. We then headed off the beach (up a river) to a massive range of sand dunes. We got the chance to go sand boarding (throwing yourself off the side of a sand dune on a body board). Sarah didn't fancy it but I was really looking forward to this part. It was a steep climb up which was made harder as it was a sand dune. A few people went before me. You had the option of stopping before the river or gliding over it. Everyone before me stopped so I decided to stop to. The driver helped us get ready the first time and explained how to do it without falling off. The main thing was to not let go. My first go went great, I stopped just before the water and Sarah has a great video of it. When I was climbing back up people started getting braver. A number of people made it right over the water but some misjudged it and fell off in the water. On my second go I didn't get up enough speed for the water so stopped it short. The third go I messed up completely. I took a bit of a run to get up some speed but couldn't get enough grip on the front of the board. About half way down I lost all my grip and went into a barrel role. I have no idea how many times I spun round sideways but I couldn't stand up from the dizziness. Completely covered in sand (which I was still finding 24 hours later) I limped off to the bus. Once I got over the shock it was quite fun. Back on the bus we headed straight to the very north point of New Zealand. It was a short walk down hill from the car park to the point. At the bottom we were greeted with a light house, a sign telling us how far away things are and a stunning view. I'd read in the leaflets how you can see where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific meet. I didn't believe it but you could. The two seas where sending waves in opposite directions and there was a clear colour difference. Back on the bus we had an hour drive to our lunch stop. I am glad we took our own food as the lunch was quite expensive and didn't look that great. As soon as we left our lunch stop the driver wanted to know who was having dinner of fish and chips about an hour up the road as he had to ring ahead. Shockingly half the bus wanted dinner really early just after lunch. We made one quick stop at a souvenir shop before heading for the fish and chips. Our final stop was in a forest so we could see a number of native forest trees. Shockingly only about 2% of the original forest still exists. All in all the trip lasted a good 12 hours and we were shattered once we arrived back into Paihia. We headed out for some dinner but got side tracked by a bar offering cheap drinks. I got conned into playing the wii with some guys and by this time it was quite late. We managed to find somewhere still open - which was lucky as the rest of the town was dead.

August 17th (Monday) - Day 168 - Paihia
At last we would actually get out and see the bay of islands. There are 144 islands in the bay here and we'd booked a cruise to head out amongst them. It was a beautiful day and the sun was already beating down at 9am. We waited in line for about 10 minutes to be told by the lady checking tickets that we were on the wrong boat. This turned out to be a really good thing as this boat was almost full and our 200 capacity boat only had 10 people. The ironic thing is the two boats did exactly the same path through the islands. We sailed out in the general direction of the Pacific zig zagging through the islands and dropping off post for some of the islanders. All of which seemed to be old bearded men who owned a dog. As soon as we reached the ocean 6 or so bottle nosed dolphins swam up to the boat; one even had a calf. They swam around the boat and played in the wake. We got some great pictures and videos. Once they were bored of us we headed back into the bay taking a different route back. We stopped off at one of the islands to take a walk up a hill to a view point. From here you could really take in the size of the bay and all the islands. The whole trip lasted about 4 hours. We got dropped off in a town opposite Paihia called Russell. The driver on the bus the day before said you could spend an hour here. We had lunch and within 10 minutes had seen everything there was to see so we went and waited for the ferry back. While we were waiting a lady dropped 20 dollars into the sea. She was really gutted as you would expect. It didn't take long to get back to Paihia. We spent about an hour sorting things out for Fiji and headed off to the super market to grab some dinner. It took over an hour to walk there and back. After making some dinner we watched a film before heading back to our room. I was just about to go for a shower when I spotted the world's largest cockroach in our room. I managed to get it into a plastic bag and chuck it over the fence to the hostel next door (which was a YHA and we don't like YHA's).