We were picked up from Auckland on the big Bright green Kiwi experience bus that was to be our transport for the whole of our time here. It's basically a hop-on hop off bus service around both the north and south islands, but they will also assist with accommodation and activity bookings. Our first journey took us north to Pahia in the bay of islands, which is exactly that, 145 beautiful little islands scattered around the bay. The weather was absolutely gorgeous. The kiwis are maticulous about sun screen as there is no Ozone over us here so we have to be extremely careful. We took a ferry cross to a small town called Russel as there is a beautiful beach there. As soon as you see the water, it is so pristine and blue and tempting you just want to get in the sea. Everywhere you look here is like a postcard. It's stunning.

On the second day here we took a day trip right to the northernmost point on the north island called Cape reinga (see Cape Reinga entry) before returning to Pahia for two more nights. Tom bought a tent in Australia so we found somewhere to camp. There's so much opportunity to camp here and usually its only half the price of a hostel so we're gona camp as much as possible. Back in Pahia we went kayaking around the islands for a morning. We stopped at beaches along the way to chill or to do a spot of snorkling. Everything and everyone here is so relaxed and laid back, i guess you would be if you lived here.

In the afternoon we walked what was supposed to be an hour to some waterfalls. It took us nearly 4 hrs to do a round trip. Was a really nice walk tho through forests and tidal bogs. Its hard to be excited about a waterfall, having been to Iguassu! We've become waterfall snobs now. i think it might happen a lot. After Paihia we headed back to Auckland for one night before beginning our journey south.