We woke up in our little van at just before 8am this morning and it was bloody freezing, because Nikki had taken all the covers! The bed wasn't the most comfortable, but it was fun all the same (i'm sure that feeling will soon wear off). We had some breakfast, packed-up the bed and got back on the road.
Our plan was to explore the Bay of Islands and spend a night up there somewhere, before heading back to Auckland either tomorrow or Friday and further South on the weekend.
After about an hour, we drove through a small seaside town called Paihia. The morning mist had cleared, the clouds had gone and the sun was shining on the water - the place looked amazing! We pulled in to take some pictures and then spent about an hour or two looking round and walking on the beach.
By now we'd looked at the map and figured that we'd head to a place called KeriKeri and spend a night there. To get there we took some scenic routes up through the hills and the views seemed to get more and more breath-taking around every corner. Up in the hills, we found a place called Haruru Falls, which are known as the 'Heart of the Bay of Islands' - they were pretty cool!
We left the falls and Nikki drove the van so that I could admire the country. I must say, she did very well and only crashed the once - only joking - she was brilliant and didn't crash at all. She got us to KeriKeri and we checked ourselves into another campsite before going for a look around.
When we got back from the town, we explored the campsite and found this HUGE old tree with a rope-swing out over a river. Even though its the middle of winter here, and the water is probably freezing, there was no way I was going to give this a miss. At one point I was going to change my mind, but when Nikki said I was a scaredy-cat I flew out over the river. Nikki had a go and then I wanted another go, but this time I got my foot stuck in the rope and couldn't get off. Nikki had to dump all the bags and come to the edge to catch me. We both nearly fell in, but she rescued me... my hero!
After all the excitement of the deadly rope swing, we needed to eat, so we made spaghetti bolognese for tea (we'd not eaten since breakfast). Yummy!
With our bellies now full, we went for a walk into KeriKeri to try and find a pub. We did find one not far from our site - but it seemed very quiet. Me and Nikki were sat enjoying a drink when we were asked if we wanted to play in the pool tournament? We said no at first, but I was thinking of changing my mind when some really scary looking, Maori men walked in... so we drank up and left. We came back to the safety of our van and watched TV instead.
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