The Bay of Islands - February 21 to 28, 2007

For our final week we drove further north on the North Island, well past Auckland and settled into a town called Paihia in the Bay of Islands. The weather was noticeably warmer--it almost had a tropical feel. It's pretty clear why the Kiwis like the Bay of Islands for summer vacations.

We played lots of golf: at Waitangi Golf Club in Paihia, at Carrington on the Karikari Peninsula (overpriced and poorly conditioned), and twice at the Kerikeri Golf Club in Kerikeri (our favourite). We also did a bunch of driving and site-seeing. The pictures below include Haruru Falls (very small but nice), the Old Stone Store on the Kerikeri River (the oldest building in New Zealand), Rainbow Falls near the Old Stone Store, in and around Mangonui and Doubtless Bay, and at the tip of the Karikari Peninsula.

We really enjoyed our last week in Paihia. It was a nice way to end the trip, with warm weather, friendly people and pleasant golf. Too bad we had to leave! The last thing we did was drive back down to Auckland, drop off the car, find the plane and head home to the land of ice and snow. It's amazing how fast March 1 came this year.

Just one month after we left, the Kerikeri/Paihia area experienced one of the heaviest floods it has seen in 150 years, with over 16 inches of rain falling in just 36 hours. I included 4 pictures at the bottom which I found on the net to capture what we just missed. Seeing that damage after leaving is a little hard to comprehend at this point.

Next stop: Some things we learned