Bay of Islands

Day two sees us at Paihia, a little town in the Bay of Islands.  We have decided to head north from Auckland, and tomorrow we are off on a cruise around Bay of Islands, which will take up the entire day.

We wanted to stay a second night here at Paihia, but they are full tomorrow, so we are off to (err) Ahip Ara, which is further north.  The day after tomorrow we are hitting Cape Reinga, so we will be at the most northerly point of New Zealand, and also the most westerly point of the North Island.

We DO plan to do the geographical extremes OF THE NORTH ISLAND, but who knows how far we will get.

The main thing about New Zealand is it does NOT feel like you're in a foreign country.  Everything is soooo like Australia.  The currency is different, there is a difference in opinion on how vowels are pronounced, but the terrain, the roads and everything else looks all too familiar.  Auckland doesn't half remind me of Brisbane.  And the areas we drove through today look so much like northern NSW it's not funny.

Anyway, we aren't getting much down time, so these blog entries are on stolen time.  I will see what we can post tomorrow - we have taken a hell of a lot of pictures at least, I'd like to get some online eventually.  Please be patient.  We are all well.  We are flipping exhausted after today's efforts, but we are safe and well.