Slept in until about 10am the next day, which I obviously needed thanks to the stupid o'clock start the previous day. Was dismayed to find no internet and very little amenities - I had managed somehow to book myself into a campervan site, with a small motel on the side, rather than the hotel I had thought - must pay more attention in the future. Anyway, the reception ladies were very helpful and friendly and it was only for a couple more nights, so what the heck?!? Booked myself up on a couple of tours - a cruise around the Bay of Islands for that afternoon and then a coach tour up to Cape Reinga and Ninety Mile Beach the next day, even got a 10% discount for booking 2 tours, which was great.

Unfortunately, time and tide made something of a mockery of both trips. It's autumn here now and everything is moving onto a winter schedule, including the weather.

The cruise around the Bay of Islands would normally be a fabulous way to spend an afternoon, except when the weather is being typically British. Afternoon came, cloudy and drizzly and choppy seas - not really a problem for a catamaran, but did make for something of a choppy ride and a wet one. After a couple of splashes and a fairly hefty soaking down one side, I moved into the cabin. It being the winter timetable, the cruise is shorter, so you don't get to see all the islands, but we did see dolphins, quite a large pod that had moved into the bay to avoid the choppy seas outside, so we were treated to some great jumping and diving around the catamaran, which was wonderful to see, but hard to photograph!! Made our way out to the Hole in the Rock (Brits, think Durdle door in miniature), but it was too choppy to take the catamaran through it, though I understand they do when the sea is calmer.

Back by about 4pm, with I admit a slightly roiling stomach and ear. As I was in a motel with some kitchen facilities, I hit the local supermarket to get something quick and easy for tea. Picked a risotto, which I thought would be easy on my stomach, which then turned out to be not such a good idea. Don't know if it was the risotto, or as a result of the cruise, but had another bad night, which was not good, as I was due for a 7.30am pick up for my trip up to Cape Reinga. I did set my alarm, but on my ipod, which as it hadn't connected to the internet hadn't reset it's timezone, so it was still on Sydney time, 2 hours behind. So, when I kept looking at my ipod, I thought I still had hours to go, then got fed up and got up and looked at my watch, to discover it was nearly 8am. I had missed my coach pick up, so I threw on some clothes and belted down to reception. When she opened, just after 8am, I discovered she apparently had come and banged on my door - missed that completely, so I must have got some sleep at least! There was a possibility I could still join the tour, but I would have to drive to Kauri Kingdom, just north of Awanui and meet them there before they set off up Ninety Mile beach. It was about an hour and half drive, but I had a little bit of leeway and they were going the long way round & the receptionist sent me the shorter cross country route. So I drove like a demon, though some very twisty roads and some scenery that would have been fabulous to see, if I had been sat in a coach!!! Anyway, made it to Kauri kingdom, to find I had just missed the coach by about 5 minutes - they had to leave by a certain time in order to avoid the tide on the beach. Decided that as I was already half way there, I might as well drive up to Cape Reinga for a look - still not 100% sure that was a great idea. There is only really one road in & one road out and it is a very twisty, somewhat tortuous road which took over an hour to drive and when I got there, it was pretty much blowing a gale. It is also a very sacred place to the Maori's, as they believe this is where their spirits depart from on their journey back to their ancestral homelands, so there is no food or drink or amenities, apart from toilets and it was cold, raining and very very windy. The coach I should have been on was there, and left shortly after I arrived. I admit, I did toy with simply following it for the rest of it's tour, but quite frankly I was thinking that I had at least 2 and a half hours drive back to Paihia and did I want to be following a coach and hanging around like a spare part? I had a bit of a wander around Cape Reinga and took a couple of photos, but it was fairly miserable and not looking like it was going to get any better. So, I drove back to Kauri Kingdom at a fairly sedate pace and then took the easy road back to Paihia and was back just a little before 4pm. Went over to Waitangi Treaty Grounds, as it is just right next door to Paihia, to see if I could fit that in that day, leaving me free to get an early start back to Auckland the next day. However, it appears that most things still shut early in New Zealand, especially when they move to the winter timetable, so they were shutting at 5pm, which meant I would have had less than an hour, on a $25 entrance fee, which I thought wasn't particularly good value, so resolved to leave it and get up at a reasonable hour the next day and do a visit first thing, before setting off back to Auckland. Had a long hot shower back at the motel to make up for missing one in the morning, which made me feel better!

Okay, so it wasn't quite first thing the morning, but pretty close. Packed up and checked out of the motel just after 9am, so got to Waitangi at a good time to have a bit of a wander, watch the 10am information show and maybe get the cultural performance at 10.30. However, they were having "technical difficulties" with the information show, so we didn't get the information show, so just had to wander round. The Waitangi Treaty Grounds are historically important to New Zealand, as it is the place where they finally signed a treaty with nearly all the Maori tribes and ended years of conflict in New Zealand and it officially became part of the British Empire. The land, including the British residency on it, fell into disrepair and was sold several times, before it was purchased and donated to the New Zealand nation by Lord and Lady Gisborne back in the 1930's. The residency is now called the Treaty House and has been wonderfully restored and the Maori Meeting House opposite is just wonderful to behold; the carving is exquisite, the colours are vibrant (and I'm not particularly a fan of red) and the weaving work inside is beautiful. The Meeting house is a sacred place, so you need to take your shoes off and actually for the first time I really didn't mind doing that - maybe because the floor is wood and not stone, as it was in the temples in Asia, maybe because it's sacred but not overtly religious? I don't know, but somehow it didn't feel intrusive for the first time.

Also had a look at the War Canoe, which was built especially for the Waitangi centennial celebrations. The canoe was built from 3 Kauri trees and was constructed using old techniques which had to be re learnt. It is beautifully carved, over 35 metres long, and I would imagine is an absolute b***** to steer!! They have a Kauri stump next to the war canoe, so you can see just how big some of the Kauri trees grow. Tried to get back to the visitor centre to get the 11am video, but apparently they were still having technical difficulties and were in the middle of the cultural show, so I would have to wait at least another hour, which would have meant a very late start to Auckland, which I knew would be at least 3 hours or so, so I decided to give it a miss.

I think I have already decided in my head to come back to New Zealand, though as part of a guided tour - I think that I would enjoy it more if I wasn't doing all the driving - by the end of yesterday I would have given my right arm for a decent bit of straight motorway, but I didn't get any until about 30kms from Auckland, so I didn't get to admire the scenery as much as I'd like and 3 hours of driving on these roads is very hard on the concentration, so I've been pretty worn out by the end of most days.