Hello all!

So after an early start and a very late bus we officially started our travels on the kiwi Experience bus, heading north to Bay of Islands! The journey was about 4 hours but the scenery was beautiful, unfortunately the weather wasn't and it didn't look like it was getting any better the further north we went. We arrived at our hostel in Paihia midafternoon and decided to use the wet weather as an excuse to sort our bags out and do some washing. We met up with some people from our bus for our BBQ buffet and some drinks at the bar later on as well as meeting Emma who had gone up a few days before.

The next day the sun was shining (thank god) as we headed up to Cape Reinga (90 mile beach) the drive up was gorgeous lots of sheep and farm land. The beach itself was lovely it is classed as a public highway so there were a few coaches and cars driving down it however it still took about an hour to get to the end. Once there we climbed up some huge sand dunes and did some sand boarding, it was so much fun going head first down a huge dune on a boogie board. Ben was very good at over shooting the landing and ending up in the wet marsh land. After a quick clothing change we were back on the bus heading to the very tip of New Zealand, here you could see where the Tasman sea and the pacific ocean met. After this we headed back down to Paihia to get our fish and chips. It was a lovely day of sight-seeing and a bit of adrenaline.

After a bit of a lay in the next day, we decided to take a walk to see the treaty house where the native Maori chiefs signed the treaty of Waitangi to join the British Empire. The treaty house was a typical period English house which looked strange amongst the Maori inspired surroundings; however the story of the settlers and the treaty were very interesting and made for a really good day out. As well as the treaty house there was the original Maori war canoe's, huge boats made from a single tree carved with warrior faces, it was hard to believe that these things where used and still get used once a year.

The following day Ben and I took a boat trip to see the surrounding islands. It was a little cloudy but still the islands looked beautiful. The boat we were on also pulled into the bay of one of the islands so we could stop and see the dolphins playing about. We stopped on one of the islands for lunch where there wasn't much more than a café and lots and lots of sheep. There are 144 islands in total most of which do not have settlement on them however the ones that do are so cute and natural that it seems such a lovely calm place to live. The final stop on the tour was the 'hole in the rock' and arch way that had been eroded into a huge rock. The sea however was too choppy for us to go through so we just had to admire from the side lines. On our way back from the boat trip we did a little shopping on the one shopping street that Paihia has, I got some more bracelets to add to my collection and Ben also got one as to not feel left out. We chilled out by the beach for the rest of the day and had an evening off from the bar.

Our final day in the lovely bay of islands was started off with a nice long lay in, and after feeling lazy we decided to take the hike to see the Haruru waterfalls, the walk itself was fairly long (5km each way) but was beautiful, the track took us through the mangrove tree's and up into the forest. The water and surroundings leading up to the falls was so quiet that at first we thought we may have gone the wrong way until suddenly from nowhere the falls appeared in from of us. As the falls were not very big you were allowed to go right up to the edge and even paddle a bit if you felt brave enough. It was a really lovely afternoon so we sat and had our lunch whilst watching the waterfall. It was a really nice way to spend our last day in Paihia. That night was bonfire night (yes they celebrate it here for some reason) so Ben and I along with a few people we met went down to the beach to watch some fireworks, however they were very anticlimactic, unlike the UK the fireworks lasted a few minutes and were not very big, which to be honest was good for me as I don't like them that much. So it was back to the bar for the rest of happy hour and to dance away our last night in the bay of islands before heading back to Auckland the next day.

From Paihia, Bay of Islands

Nikki and Ben xxx