Sunday, October 6, 2013

Back to Bay of islands (and around)

The plan for the way back south from Cape Reinga was to make several stops in order to see something, get some rest, and Lola to ask for some job opportunities in local bars. As the Northland is really not that busy, it has guided us back to Bay of islands (Paihia), but we had two quite funny stops on the way: 

Ngawha springs - thermal spa (few pits full of stinky water and mud with no showers :))

Kawakawa - toilets designed by Friedrich Hundertwasser. Fully usable and free (been there 
, done that)

Upon arrival to Paihia, Lola started to look for a job (seems that quite successfully), so I spent some time exploring on my own or with Francois, who was back in Bay of islands as well at that time:

Russell - nice old settlement on the other side of Bay of islands. It is a total opposite to Paihia, which is full of bars, restaurants and backpackers accommodation. Russell is an old (actually it was the first capital of NZ - before Auckland and Wellington) quiet settlement full of posh restaurants and luxurious houses with stunning views over the bay.

Russell beach 

Living in Russell


Russell's Long Beach

On one of the day we did with Francois a kayaking trip to Haruru falls (Francois was staying and helping a guy who runs a business with kayaks, so we got a better price for the trip):

Tony Estanguet and Michal Martikan in action

And after the action... :)

As I really had enough of the beaches and wanted a bit of something else, we did a 2day trip to the west coast to see the Kauri forests and do a bit of trekking. It was a nice change and I'm glad that I finally moved a bit, but trekking in forest is definitely not as interesting as in the high mountains. So I'm really looking forward for the treks in the South Island Alps. We've had little problems with navigating to some campsite for the night, but when we finally found a suitable one, we got a really nice reward - we spotted a kiwi (the bird, not a NZ citizen) during the night walk in the nearby forest :) Unfortunately I do not have a picture as a I didn't have my camera with me, but it was real fun to watch this weird animal :)  

West coast - on the way to the forests

French guy destroying the NZ pride :)

The biggest Kauri tree (Taune Mahuta) 

Some more forest

And some more forest

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