A Walk in Bay of Islands

One of the many islands in the Bay of Islands
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So the beginning of me losing track of all space and time has finally approached. As we exited our pleasant bus ride from Auckland up to Paihia and we had one of the first bus drivers that we could actually understand, Bill went to get some tourist information while I stood with our bags. The bus driver popped his head out of the door, and asked, "Did anyone leave this bag on the bus." I looked up but assumed it wasn't mine, to see my black purse in his hand, the one that contained our passports. Bill and I had changed seats at one point to sit next to each other, and I just left it underneath my first seat. But we got lucky and it was recovered.

The dark clouds are rolling in during our walk
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We only had to walk about 1/2 a km to make it to a street that contained a whole row of backpacker accommodations. And so we ended up staying at the Pepper tree hostel, but the first night was pretty packed so we had to share a room with a couple of guys but the next day we got switch to a pretty luxurious double for only 20 NZ dollars more. We basically picked this place because they offered kayaks and tennis options for free.

The first day we took it easy after the bus and walked along the beach and found a sunny area to read our books as I was lost in SARUM, and was determined to finish. If you don't know the book, all you have to know is that it is a 1034 pages of small type, and so it was going to take time to finish hence taking it easy and reading. (I do recommend the book, but just make sure you have time to read a chapter at a time to keep things straight.)

Sitting on the edge of Haruri Falls
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Though that night as we searched the internet and had high plans of catching up on the blog, I did my research on the Milford Track which we were attempting in a couple of days. What I didn't know was that we'd have to carry all of our own food, as well as pots and pans, and there weren't any showers. What had originally made me agree to this trek was watching Globetrekker and part of it was showing him in a nice hot shower after a day of trekking. Well, we learned the hard way that he must have been part of the guided track package which was four times per person as much as what our we paid for the two of us. So our problem now became, what are we going to do since we don't have that stuff?...lucky, we found out places actually rent that stuff....

Bill protecting the bay from pirates
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The next day after my freak out about Milford, I took it easy and slept in a bit but we had to pack our stuff up so we could switch rooms. We decided it was time to go for a trek and practice a bit before attempting our larger trek, and went to the Waitangi Walking Track which led us to Haruru Falls. The falls were pretty impressive and as we were watching, there was a tourist boat below with guides looking like the Mauri, the natives of this land. The boat went up to the waterfall and then pulled back a bit. The walk itself was about 5 km each way, and on the way back I took the pack for Bill and we tried to get back to the hostel but the rain fall prevented us from making it as fast as we would have liked. It was another 3 km each direction to the hostel. So we walked a total of 16 km that day by the time we were done, and we ended up soaked. It was a good walk in prep for Milford, though we would have taken it either way as it was a nice walk through the forest. New Zealand seems to have a lot of walking tracks all around lending you through beautiful forests, even smack in the middle of Auckland. So much green to see, it's wonderful.

The veiws are amazing
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This day was technically the 28th in New Zealand, but we went to a nice restaurant to celebrate Thanksgiving because that's when everyone in America was celebrating as we're almost a full day ahead here. No Turkey but we seafood instead as it's better here anyhow. But we hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, as it's weird not celebrating it with family and friends. We called it an early night so I could get back to SARUM as I was almost finished, but I heard all the music and partying going on outside and wished we were out so we decided the next night, we'd go out.

A panorama from the top of the Russel lookout
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Bill took advantage of the free kayaks and took one for a row around the bay, I wasn't quite up for it after the track yesterday as I was a bit soar and didn't want to aggravate. But he paddled to a few of the islands out in the bay and enjoyed himself, and would have staying out longer if I'd gone. (Another reason I didn't go...)

But when he returned, we caught a ferry to the other island, Russell Island. We tried to go get lunch but since we were at such an odd time 3:40 pm, many kitchens where closed. So we had to settle on one restaurant that offered snacks and we got some nachos and chicken nuggets. But after "lunch," we took a walk up to the viewpoint and saw the view of the city and their sun dial. It was a nice little walk, though I wish I hadn't wore my flip flops for the downhill part of the walk. And since we weren't hungry, we just got the ferry back to the other side.

Bill and Michelle at the top of the Russel lookout
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And then we went to Salty's for Pizza, beer, and pool. Though the more beer you bought, the more raffle tickets, you received. And since, they're weren't really that many people in the bar, we had two of our numbers called. I made Bill go up and the first time he was another beer with the balloon that he picked. But the second time he was called up, it was to play High Low. He just had to guess if the next card would be higher or lower than the last card. He had won a jet boat ride, a kayak ride, fly fishing, water skiing/waking board, and bungee jumping, and he had it all riding on the last card of a 5. He decided to risk them all for the last prize was sky diving, and he guessed higher but it was a 4. And so he lost all the prizes, though he had almost walked away before the sky diving with all the other prizes which he could have done. He was planning on trying to sell them at our hostel since we were leaving the next morning anyhow. Oh well...

The view out towards the rest of the bay
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Michelle