Today, after the traditional breakfast of porridge, toast and a long walk on the beach (it is a recent tradition, only about 4 days old, but a tradition none-the-less), we headed off to the Bay of Islands. The Bay of Islands isn't one particular town, it is more a community of towns, or a region; think of David Thompson Country in Alberta.
It is about a 45 minute drive from Coopers Beach to Paihia. That is the tourist town I talked about a couple blog entries ago. We found a parking spot there, and took the passenger ferry over to Russell. Russel was a quaint little town filled with various gift shops, artisans, and restaurants that you would expect in a small, seaside village. It is home to the oldest church in New Zealand; Christ's Church (not to be confused with Christchurch). We checked out the town by foot and went on a couple bush walks to Flagstaff, which is up on the peninsula. Flagstaff is where, over hundreds of years, the Pakiha (white people) have raised a flag, and over the same hundreds of years (strange how that worked out), the Maori have continually cut down the flag.
After Flagstaff, we went on another bush walk to a little hidden gem of a beach; it wasn't so much a beach as a cubby hole of sand nestled in a tiny inlet, surrounded by large rocks. While quaint, it wouldn't be somewhere you'd want to spend your whole day, so with that thought in mind...we left.
After emerging from the bush (giggle...bush), we headed back into town for lunch. We ate at a little pizza joint just off the water. They had a special of any pizza, any price. So we ordered a large pizza to split between the two of us. Being the light weight that she is, Kristie only managed three pieces, whereas I managed to scarf down six, count-em, six pieces of pizza! Hey, if I pay for it, damn it, I'm gonna eat it! Oh yeah, that is a distended belly, and not a tumour!
Right after lunch, we had to rush to catch the ferry back to Paihia. It turns out rushing isn't that easy when you've eaten six pieces of pizza. When we arrived back in Paihia, we noticed a farmers market across the street. The funny thing was, that farmer's market wasn't there when we left...hmmmmmm. Anyway, we walked around and looked at the produce and such that was being sold, but as I had just eaten six pieces of pizza, nothing looked overly appetizing.
After the farmer's market, we drove the short hop to Waitangi, which is the spot of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the spot where (arguably), the current form of New Zealand was born. We went into the treaty house museum, circled the grounds, took pictures of Maori war canoes, and went to see the marae. We didn't have as much time to spend there as we would have liked, but I want to do more research into the history of Watangi.
That took us to about 3:00 pm, and we had to get back to the bach to see the pups. We drove home with a quick stop in Kerikeri to pick up a couple of slices for tonight's dessert and a flat white.
We capped off the day with one final walk along the beach with the pups and a dinner of left over Thai food.
Today was a wonderfully relaxing day!
Note: You can view all of our photos here:
Picasa Web Album.
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