Bay of Island

Auckland

Today we left Whagarei where we stayed for one night to drive to the Bay of Islands in Northland. We had a very pleasant drive down, diverting off to Matapouri,a bay just below the Bay.  It was fantastic and the weather very hot.  We were very careful and put on the suncream but still got quite red.  The sea was very warm and the sand was so fine.  We would have like to have stayed longer but we had to get on to our next stop.  We decided to go to a place could Russell first as it had been recommended.  It is a really beautiful area and the ferrys run from there around the Bay of Islands and to look for Dolphins.  This is hopefully on our agenda.  After eating an enormous ice cream we left for KeriKeri our final destination for the day.  Unfortunately sat navs only tell you the roads to go on.  We found ourselves on a gravel road for 10k.  It was hell and everything was shaking about in the van.  It was mainly bends and up and down mountainside.  Not the best of places to be..my vocabulary was at best******poor David he did drive as best as he could.  We eventually arrived at the campside only to find that the road we should have taken was to the ferry...our dear sat nav lady couldn't travel over water!!

We finally arrived at Kerikeri and our first job was to get rid of all the grey dust in the van before we could eat.  We are planning to stay for 3 nights so at least we can relax in a really pretty part of North Island and enjoy all it has to offer.  To all those readers who have been to Cyprus,tomorrow we are going up on a road that looks like the pan handle.  Lets hope that road is better than todays...otherwise watch this space..
Thats all for today. Tomorrow we can hopefully download some pictures as I have bought another three hours wifi (nothing is for free here).


l