Bay of Islands weekend Feb 2007
Perfect Weather
perfect Company
perfect Scenery
perfect Entertainment .
Keith, Christine, Bryan, Brenda, Ken, Heather, Peter, Lynn, Michael, Jan, Cameron, Aileen, Carol, Andrew, Diana and I all left Auckland on the most perfect morning ever.We met near Albany at 8.30am and organized ourselves with the essentials (fuel and coffee) before hitting the highway. First stop was the German Café north of Kaiwaka. Some seemed hungrier than others but we settled for about 20 mins anyway. Several tour buses arrived and left while we were there and much attention was paid to our little cars.
On to Whangarei town basin. A beautiful place alongside the river with cafes galore. We settled on “Mondos” for lunch and crammed all 16 of us onto a couple of tables. The food was very nice. Next stop the world famous Kawakawa toilets.
The scenery as we drove into the Bay was wonderful. Cruising along Paihia to our motel drew many admiring glances. "Drink time" was due so we wandered along the waterfront to "35 degrees" for a cold one. At 4.30pm nine hardy folks were unrecognizable in their new outfits .....MACK ATTACK......
Many very wet people came back from the "Hole in the Rock" but all laughing and enjoying it. The American who destroyed his Nikon with water wouldn't agree though.
Bryan and I were soaked through.
So it was home for showers and we were all sipping away on Carol and Andrew's balcony by 7pm. All 16 of us dined at a restaurant called "Nine" in Paihia at 8pm and enjoyed a really good meal. Midnight saw us all ready for sleeping.
Sunday
Into Russell for breakfast at the Duke of Marlborough hotel on the waterfront. Then we took a drive along past Pompellier House, over Flagstaff hill into Tapeka Point and ended up on Long Beach where we showed off to all the locals.
The next stage was a little longer. Leaving Russell we followed the back road home towards Oakura Bay. The views were wonderful. First of the inner waters and then of the small bays nestled along the coast. It took about an hour to arrive in Oakura Bay where we snacked and rested while parked along the beach.
The drive from Oakura Bay to Puhoi Pub took about 2.4 hours. Traffic was slow with many boats and trucks in the way. Heather was stung by a bee while a passenger in her car and of course it was Kens fault because if he had been going faster it wouldn't have been able to land on her.
We ended the day with a relaxing drink before cruising on home to arrive around 5.30pm.
A perfect weekend.