The drive to Paihai is incredible... it was if you were driving through the lake district with valleys of lushous green filled hills either side of you. On top of that we were close to the coast on parts which gave us another set of jaw dropping views. You really get to appreciate the scenery when you drive.

Our campervans are very cool by the way. Me and George are in one with a manga design painted across it whilst Woody and Beans are in one with a maori face. Ours is a manual and comes with a ton of storage, cooking facilities and all the bed linen and duvets to keep us warm. We arrived in the bay of islands in the dark and after not finding a cheap camp site settled in a side of the road lay-by. Living like this is a completely different experience and after cooking up some spag-boll for dinner we were settling into bed to await the next days events!

We were up to an astounding view of the bay which didn't really appreciate in the dark last night. Then we realised that we'd been parked in an illegal layby - woops?! But hey, 10 minutes later we were sticking on some very cold clothes and heading back into town to check out the shops and i-site information building. We booked our boat cruise of the bay and then went into a souvenir shop which included hand crafted pieces out of anchient Kauri wood. The lady in the shop recommended we take the a drive north to see their factory shop which held a staircase carved within a tree trunk. The drive was as good as she claimed and as we went through some breathtaking views of the NZ countryside. And that was followed up by what can only be described as the best piece of craftmanship I have ever seen! The factory was home to some beautiful pieces all priced in their thousands but the story of how they obtain the trees was just astonishing. They had grown over 45,000 years ago before a natural event left them lying beneath the earth which practically fossilized them. Now, after all this time they're being found and crafted into stunning pieces of furniture and other odds and sods. On the drive back we found ourselves an RV park to settle down and warm the bones up as we plugged in our heaters and got cooking! 

Up early once more but this time for a better reason - we were off to cruise the islands and hopefully see some marine life! The tour was a good 4 hours long and took us out and around 40+ nautical miles of the bay of islands. Thankfully we were on a much larger boat than the one we were on in Rarotonga. To be fair though, the bay was pretty calm so there wasn't much chance of any upset stomachs. I'm especially glad because if the lads had been sea sick once more they'd have missed out on some memorable views of the islands, bays, caves and the surrounding landscape. After about an hour and a half of the tour we arrived at the world famous 'hole in the rock' that was apparently formed by tectonic activity that dates back thousands of years. Once we'd marvelled at that and learned it's history, the boat docked on one of the larger islands to allow us to explore the paths and views for an hour. It was great to lose the sea legs for a while and typically the views were outstanding. The tour then came to an end and we were dropped back a Piahia to tour the picturesque town a little more. It's a shame our bad luck continued and we didn't see any dolphins, but the views, tour and overall experience more than made up for it. 

After exploring the town a little more, we decided our time was finished and agreed to get back on the road and travel back down south towards the hot sand beaches!