We started our third day in Paihia quite early (funnily enough, anna and I had had a fair bit of sleep! - however Mel still hasn't had a full nights sleep...). We had breakfast and headed down to the wharf in time to catch our boat. It was a pretty big boat with 3 floors and two inside areas too. We managed to get seats in the sun at the top thinking we had picked pretty well - except when the boat started to move, we had to rock a pretty windswept look. It actually got SO windy all you could do is laugh and try and find someone to use as a windshield. Anna decidedly chose to hide behind me whereas mel crouched down in the space in front of her seat to use the people in front of her as windbreakers... she looked very special.

Within the first hour the tour became worth the money spent as we found a pod of dolphins! Loads of them swam alongside the boat for ages, jumping in and out of the water! We all got pretty excited - I was so so happy to see them! I've never seen dolphins in the wild before and it was one thing I really wanted to do out here. The tour basically took us around the Bay of Islands. It just so happens that is lots of bays in lots of islands! We got a fair bit of local history from our captain who luckily was quite funny too and stopped off at one of the bays for lunch. I finally got to swim in the sea which I've been dying to do since I saw a beach out here. Anna and I jumped off the back of the boat (although the captain kept trying to persuade us to jump from the top of it!). Although it was actually a really sunny day, it was windy which meant we were all a bit chilly and didn't stay in the water for too long.

The boat took us to the famous Hole in the Rock as expected which was pretty cool and the whole trip in general was really relaxing. Its mainly the views we got from it that made our day because everywhere we looked was paradise - once we had found our spot on the middle deck sheltered from the wind it was pretty perfect! The boat also offered Boom Netting which is like a net on the side of the boat which a few people sit in and get tossed about a fair bit. As fun as it looked, its not called Boob Netting for nothing - bikinis have a way of coming off somehow! We decided not to try it out...

On the way back Mel was feeling a bit sick as shed got fairly burnt during the day so she decided to go straight back to the hostel, however Anna and I took the opportunity to see Russel while we were there. Its a really pretty old town with some stunning views. Wanting some icecream, we went to this waterfront pub, however the guy took absolutely ages deciding whether our Ids were fake or not... I understand that we weren't supposed to be there if we were under 18 but seriously - we just wanted icecream! Nevertheless the view from our table was really pretty and we all felt pretty chilled out by dinner time. We decided not to bother cooking againand headed for this pizza bar with a sweet deal - pizza, garlic bread, side salad AND soft drink for $14 which is like £7!! It wasn't the best of bars but the meal was great and definitely worth not having the hassle of cooking :)

Mel (or Rudolph as we've been calling her all day) was absolutely shattered by this point so she headed back to the hostel and Anna and I got drawn into a bar for a while where we met some girls on a Kiwi Experience tour. It was a really nice evening and we were glad we managed to stay up to make the most of our evenings as well as our days. The next morning we were up early to check out and catch our bus out of Paihia. I just wish we hadn't only found out about the hot tub at the hostel on our last day!!