Last weekend I rented a car and took a trip up to the Bay of Islands. It is a 240km drive from Auckland. I did my usual ‘gunk holing’ leaving Saturday morning and stopping along the way getting to the backpackers at 5pm. This time I had no Annabelle which was sad but I survived!

As I drove through Wellsford I saw signs for a christmas parade and indeed people were lining the street and they were starting to close down the main road through town. I drove on through and parked on the north end of town after the barricades. Wanting to try and get in a festive mood I sat on the side of the road with lots of families – the kids all excited about the prospect of Santa Claus and ‘lollies’ (sweets or candy). It still doesn’t seem like Christmas though as I have a sunburn and am in shorts and t-shirts all day :-). The parade was small but a noticeable amount of effort was put in by the community so it was fun to see.

Next stop Mangawhai for the saturday market where I picked up some packed lunch then a beautiful beach walk at Mangawhai Heads before getting back on the coastal road. The drive reminded me of HW 1 from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach. Whangarei is a commercial town but the Town Basin is great for boat spotters and there is an amazing second hand boat parts store which I ducked into to get out of the rain.  At Kawakawa I had to get out and check out the ”World Famous” public toliet and also watch some bowling.

At Opua I took the car ferry across to Russell and the Wainui Lodge backpackers both are small scenic towns on the shore of the Bay of Islands. The owner of Wainui Lodge had built the place himself he was a very gracious host and was very worried about my obvious tiredness giving me a lecture on taking time off! I spent the evening exploring Russell which is has a lot of history for a NZ town as it was the first capital of NZ and one of the first European settlements.

 I was planning on some tramping on the Sunday but everyone I had talked to said I must see the Bay of Islands from water. So I did the unthinkable and paid to go sailing (my clients should ignore this comment!). The owner was a Canadian from BC and between a few other crew including his daughter he made the day trip very enjoyable. There was a lot of wildlife to see – the dolphins loved us – and we went for a walk on one of the islands. At 5pm it was time to pile in the car for the trip back to Auckland so I would be back for monday morning work. I took the coast road around from Russell through Oakura to Whakapara. It was a very windy road and a lot slower than the car ferry option back to Opua I thought it would be worth the extra distance as it was meant to be scenic, it was but no more than the main road.

The coast of NZ is starting to blossom with color as the NZ christmas tree (pohutukawa) is starting to flower. These trees are trough and adaptable gaining a foothold in inhospitable rock crevices surviving being drenched costantly with sea water spray.