The beautiful Bay of Islands

We had heard a lot about the Bay of Islands and were excited to be there. We found a good camper-van site with a nice view of the river and just a few minutes from the town of Paihia. As we are still in late spring/early summer in NZ, we have NO reservations, something we would never do in Cali at any time of year.

Since moving Britzy is easy, we decided to drive into town and take a long walk up the coast to the Town of Opua. The long walk was lengthened because the boardwalk through the mangroves was dismantled for repairs. Always determined, we trudged-on along the shoreline and made it to Opua in about 2 hours. Opua is really just a marina town with a ferry that takes you to Russell. After lunch, we headed back the way we came to find that the tide has risen so much that we had to time the small waves as we were walking against a cliff and didn’t want to get wet. I have, on occasion, laughed at the stories of silly tourists getting caught/stranded by a rising tide, now it might be us,😔!

We made it back to Paihia Town, dry and tired without being stranded. Our watches indicated that we had hiked over 10 miles, so much for a relaxing morning jaunt.

Day 2 in the Bay of Islands began with a quick shopping trip in Paihia town that yielded nothing but a great cup of coffee. Wanting to see more of the islands, we booked a short boat cruise for that afternoon.

With time to spare until our boat ride, I found a local waterfall to visit and fill Terri’s desire for a waterfall a day.

While the weather was great in the morning that we booked our boat ride, it had deteriorated by the time we were boarding.

Our trip visited a few of the major islands with a particular focus on “the hole in the rock island.” During good weather, the boat will go through the hole, today’s weather and swell were not even close to what we needed.

The return trip affords a stop at one of the larger islands, (Urupukapuka Island), where people are allowed to hike and camp. Terri and I went for a hike in the rain while everyone else went to the tavern on the beach.