Day 5 Paihia

After another frightfully early start (I don’t like how I’m now used to waking up before 5:30!)

The owner dropped me off at the bus stop – which was really lovely since it’s a 30 minute walk and that feels really far when you’re lugging all your stuff with me like I was when I arrived!

Anyway the bus was late, of course, but then we set off to Paihia. Oh my goodness, I know I mentioned before that I wished I could stay longer up here, but the scenery on the bus ride made me long to linger. I couldn’t take any photos because 1. It was a bus, 2. It was actually more of a van so everyone would have seen, and 3.the windows were tinted and muddy so any pictures I did take would have been rubbish. But because it was so early there was mist lingering in the vallies and it just made the entire hour look even more amazing!

Oh and obviously the weather was beautiful today!

So I got to Paihia at around 10 and I managed  to plan out what I wanted to do and check into the hostel (which is nice enough) 

But in the 20 minutes it took for me to sort everything out the weather wasn’t looking for lovely, but still, it was cloudy but it definitely didn’t look like rain, so I head off on my 30 minute walk to the Waitangi grounds…

Only it didn’t take half an hour, I’d put it closer to an hour and half when I finally made it there, want to know why? Rain. Thunder, lightning and oh so heavy rain. I don’t think I would have any wetter if I just jumped in the ocean – truly, I could hardly keep my shoes on they were filled with so much water. Long story short I managed to find refuge at a little takeaway/bakery style place that they have a lot here and bought myself a hot chocolate to keep myself going.

It was a truly awful walk, the only upside being it wasn’t too cold , although as soon as I set out from the bakery because it eased off it started again. And the palce wasnt clearly signposted so I ended up walking around a lot more than I needed to, but anyway Waitangi Treaty Grounds.

The world's largest War Canoe 

I ended up staying a lot longer than planned at the grounds, partly because it was interesting, and to be honest, because there was a lot of shelter. Between paihia and Waitangi there really isn’t any shelter so I waited until the rain died down a bit (not sure why I bothered really since I was already so wet) and then I headed back to the ferry station.

Now I know I said I wasn’t going to do any more boats, and I’m not, but the ferry was 10 minutes, and I could see the town we were crossing to so I felt like that was ok. So I took the ferry crossing over the Russel, the original capital of NZ, and pottered about there for a bit!

 The view from the ferry

I decided to go up the Flagstaff hill since it’s quite a monumental sight for Maori –pakeha relations. But that hill was STEEP! I think I actually went the steepest path as I chose another route coming down and it felt horizontal in comparison!

 Obviously the day was filled with rainbows again!

The weather was really on and off, as it has been all day, so I didn’t dawdle too long, although I did meet a guy from OZ who comes from ‘the valleys’! And chatted to him for a little while.

That's Russell in the background!

Then I caught the ferry back over to Paihia, where the weather was marginally improving, climbed another hill and got a wet bum watching the sun set while I ate my dinner.

All in all, not a bad day in Paihia! Aside from the rain I got to see everything I wanted and the town is really quite cute. But I don’t think taking your shoes off and having wrinkly toes is a good sign!

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

Day 2 Rainbow Springs

Firstly, the stars here are amazing. I mean, the stars throughout NZ are simply beautiful and 100x better than anything I’ve seen back in the UK as you always see the milky way quite distinctly. But last night? I swear it was a star gazers dream, I completely forgot to take a picture as I just got caught up looking up.

Today I woke with the sunrise and after a quick breakfast I head out looking for the trek I wanted to do. Now I’ve mentioned before that Kiwi’s aren’t big on signposting and never was that more true than today. I ended up going down 4 wrong roads because none, NONE of them were marked on any of my maps. And, of course, there are never any road signs in NZ

 It's hard to mind getting lost when you're getting lost that's just so pretty- these trees were massive! The bushes at the bottom were over three times my height!

 I did eventually find the track though and after seeing a slightly daunting warning not to attempt it when the river was in flood or after heavy rain I set off (I should maybe mention that last night it rained… pretty heavily)

The walk to Rainbow Springs was simply beautiful and definitely one of my favourites – the foliage was stunning and the path ran right along side the river so you’d often catch a glimpse of some rapids and the soar of the crashing river was your constant backdrop.

I’m really glad I set out early in the morning too, as despite it being winter here I definitely understand why its called the ‘winterless north’ as by around 10 it really started to heat up.

Just before I got to the waterfall everything went quite quiet, until I turned a corner on the path and got COMPLETELY drenched. I suppose the heavy rain had made the waterfall play up but my glasses were a blurry mess within seconds and my top was wet through!

So I quickly went up the cliff side to get a drier view of the falls.

 The walk back flew by and the whole trek only took a few hours so I decided to venture further along the river towards the Basin Reserve as I still had plenty of time. The section was definitely harder, purely because it was intensely muddy after the rain.

There also may have been one, or two terrifying moments that the mud was just too slippery and I did a crazy little wobble/skid towards the sheer drop down the river.

Despite nearly tumbling into the river a few times when I saw a thin, muddy little track to a second, surprise, waterfall I couldn’t resist. Although I think it was wading down to the rocks that really did it for my shoes – they’re now retired in the bin

I really love it when I come across a NZ heritage sight or historic landmark, because they always just seem so new to me! This was a historic power station that, weirdly, is just open for the public!

Steadily the path widened until I ended up in a park, from here I went to the Stone Store, which is the oldest stone building in New Zealand, and the missionary buildings - all of which look lovely in the sunshine

Everyone that works there is dressed in traditional clothing – think long dresses, corsets and shawls. And they sell only locally sourced bits and pieces, including preserves and jams made from the fruit grown in the gardens. They also make sure to sell a lot of what the store would have originally sold – gunpowder tea, handmade beeswax candles etc

Really falling in love with the horizontal lifestyle here in Kerikeri – the weath certainly doesn’t harm either! Walking around in t-shirts and shorts in winter? Yes please!