Thursday 12th March 2009

Pulled back the curtains at 8.00am to see the sun shining over the Auckland Skytower, The Aurora was still in harbour, her passengers still waiting for the repairs to the propeller to be completed. We just laid back in bed to take it all in. Everything was right with the world – then and we came down to earth with a bump and realised we had to get ready to move on.

It was 236 kms from Auckland to Pahia in the Bay of Islands where were to spend the next three nights. We decided to take a detour en route to see the Whangerai Falls. It was a little cloudy and we drove through very fine showers but when we got to the falls they were sparkling in splendour. We took a circular walk to get down as far as we could for a closer look.














Then time was getting on, so it was back in the car to Pahia.

We arrived at about 4.00pm and drove along the bay. There are 144 islands in the Bay in total with some of the warmest waters in New Zealand. I am not sure whether we will dip our toes but watch this space….




Our hotel was not a patch on that we had yesterday, but then again you would have to go a long way to better it. Just a couple of minutes walk to the sea. By the time we got ourselves sorted out there was just enough time for dinner.