New Zealand: Paihia

After a whole day on the bus in the rain, with a transfer in Auckland, we ended up in the Far North District at Paihia, gateway to Bay of Islands, a last minute destination as a result of the itinerary rework to prioritize Tongariro Alpine Crossing. With the weather front rework, we even had an extra day, and were happy how things worked out.

The next day's weather was beautiful. We set out walking from town first passing the Treaty of Waitangi (1840) grounds, the birthplace of modern New Zealand; or, the legitimization of land appropriation of Maori grounds. We continued to Haruru Falls through forest and mangrove tracks. Afterwards we hitched a ride back in town to the jetty, and took a ferry to Russell, the first permanent European settlement and seaport in New Zealand, where we walked out to Tapeka Point and back.

At the time of the Waitangi Treaty Russell was the biggest settlement by Europeans on the island. Today it is largely a tourist village. We had a walk to Flagstaff Hill, then through some rain forest to Tapeka Point at the end of the peninsula - such an idyllic setting, no wonder the Maoris and early Europeans settled here in big numbers.

Bussing through Auckland on our way to the Far North.


Walking from the hotel to the Paihia beach to start our walk to Haruru Falls.




Out in the bay there was an outrigger canoe paddling workout.


The first part of the trial follows a golf course. Hmmmm.




Soon we're in typical rain forest vegetation and get a good look at one of our fav NZ birds, theTui (3rd below).








The very cool mangrove boardwalk.




We ate our picnic lunch at Haruru Falls.






Then back to the Paihia jetty and we catch the ferry over to Russell, just 20 minutes on the slow boat. The barefoot captain is also the deckhand and conductor. ;-)






The village of Russell is small and pretty. We headed straight up to the top of Flagstaff Hill and enjoyed the views back to town and out to sea.








From the hill we headed down on a nature trail, passing a bug hotel (1st below), to Rocky Bay Reserve Beach.




And finally a short sharp uphill, and then across a saddle/ridge, to Tapeka Point Lookout. Wow!








At the lookout, we see that the water on the mainland side of the Russell Peninsula (right) is brownish, yet deep blue on the oceanside (left). The brownish water is fresh water runoff from recent rains that floats on top of the blue saltwater ocean (we are told).