Day 3 Kaitaia

I should probably mention how lovely the hostel I’m staying at in Kerikeri is – the owners, Victoria and David are the most welcoming people you could want, they picked me up and dropped me off at the bus stop, despite the bus stop being less than 10 minutes from the hostel. They’ve just bought the place and are busy renovating everything so the hostel itself doesn’t look amazing, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be a completely different story in a few months!

Today I headed into the centre of Kerikeri to nose about and visit the Northland Farmers market and Arts and Crafts market.

Firstly, Kerikeri centre is miniscule, as in, it’s one row of little shops and cafes, and then you’re out of the centre – it took a grad total of 20 minutes to walk up and down – that’s including dawdling at every shop and peering in every, single, window. Tiny.

The market however was so lovely. That was tiny too, as expected, but it was pretty much everything you want in a local farmers market – lots of local little stores selling stuff they’ve grown and made themselves. There were cheese stalls selling cheese they made in their kitchen, and honey stall freshly harvested, lots of apples and avocados, as well as a bakery stall selling the most amazing-smelling pastries! It was cute, and it was a fun way to spend my last few hours in Kerikeri.

As I said Kerikeri is tiny, and apart from the Rainbow Springs trek and the Stone store there wasn’t much to detain me so at lunch time I jumped in the northlander and headed up to Kaitaia (key-tie-ah, emphasis on the Key).

Not that there’s very much here either, it’s a tiny little town, but from here I plan to take a tour up to Cape Reinga, the most northerly point in NZ and do a few bits and pieces up there!

 Weirdly I was worried my accent was fading on the bus (there’s really not a lot to do on a tiny little bus, if I can even call it a bus… more a minivan) But the woman at the iSite who booked my tour, the couple I asked for directions since I had no map, and the owner of the hostel all knew straight away I was British – not lost the accept yet!

Also I’m in a hostel room with a lovely girl from Germany – quite enjoying not having full hostel rooms