Day 9

BY JO:

Today was a joyful day. There are three main reasons for this. The weather map showed rain in Auckland, Whangarei and Kaitaia. But Paihia (around abouts where we are) was 18ºC and sunny. We got to sleep in until 7:45 which was quite a remarkabl e f eelin g. And then when we started the walk, we only had 9½km to do.

 

When mum dropped us at our starting point and we got out of the car, the wind was quite chilling and due to the sunburn which was received yesterday I had opted for the jacket-only option. I realised this was not going to work as the breeze was going right through me so I grabbed a singlet to put on. It was at this point that the fact that I literally had just a jacket on became an issue. So I basically just did my darndest to get changed on State Highway 1 without anyone seeing me. I would have succeeded had it not been for my flash –happy family and their ability to crank out a camera in seconds.

We then headed off. 1km into our journey we walked past our accommodation for the night…but we soldiered on for another 8.5km where mum was waiting for us and our day of walking concluded (or so I thought…read on). As we were trekking along we saw a rather steep hill and Katie went on to explain her ability to run up One Tree Hill within minutes. I then said, “ok – you run up that hill and I’ll take photo’s”…to which Katie replied (in a very concerned voice), “are you serious?”.

As we approached the end Katie decided to start singing…so we sang loudly and waved our arms about.

Before heading to our accommodation we made a wee stop (literally) and took a photo of a fat sheep, a cute chook and two dogs that hung out at some house.

Our accommodation at Historic Paheke B&B is quite stunning.  A wonderful old house and we have a beautiful view out of our bedroom window.

We tidied up a bit and then headed out for the afternoon/evening. We went into Paihia for a bite to eat.

I decided I would make myself a sandwich…so I went to the boot (trunk) and got out my Vogels…I then said, “Mum, what’s this weird stuff on my bread?”. It was mold.

(mold visible on Facebook)

And when I asked if I could throw the modly bread to the birds, mum questioned why I would want to throw about Maori bread. But throw it we did…Katie and I even trained our crazy seagull friends a trick or two. Seriously, we got them to fly on cue and then catch the bread in the air. Amazing.

As we were looking out over the water I saw this little island. I had heard that Russell was just a short boat ride away, so I asked the question – “is that Russell?”. I have been mocked ever since.

Then we decided to a few touristy things and make us feel all cultured. First stop – Waitangi. Katie found it very interesting and was overheard saying, “wow/cool/amazing”. I did not have the same reaction.

We went into the meeting house where there were a tonne of amazing carvings which had been donated by each tribe that has signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Remarkably, Katie has a very similar resemblance to some of them.

 

Our next stop was Mount Bledisloe. I was looking forward to a nice drive up a mountain, which would then be followed by the chance to step out of the car, take photo’s, and get back in the car. Instead we were greeted with this…

…3min later we arrived at the vantage point and were able to look out over the Bay of Islands. ‘Twas fabulous.

Our final ‘stop’ was called Haruru Falls. It wasn’t quite like Niagara…and, if you don’t mind me asking, what does the colour remind you of?

 (larger view on Facebook)

We then just headed back to Paihia and sat at the beach (in the car) for a while, got a bit of dindins (dinner) and then headed back to the B&B where we hung out and had a drink + a good laugh with Juen.

 

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