Hitting the Tourist Trail in Northland – Bay of Islands

We headed up north for Easter weekend, to show our resident South Islander the joys of the Bay of Islands. The quirky-looking Cafe Eutopia in Kaiwaka was sadly closed for Good Friday, which was disappointing as I’d read a good review of it recently.  We then popped into Kawakawa to take a quick look at the Hundertwasser installation – the public toilets!  Only in New Zealand…  But it certainly is eye-catching.

Our first major stop on our tourist trail was Waitangi, touted as the birthplace of our nation (debatable). Whatever your views on the Treaty, Waitangi offers a fascinating look at the climate and pressures of February 1840, and the grounds themselves are stunning.

In Kerikeri we stepped back in time again, calling in at the Stone Store before climbing the nearby Kororipo Pa for a view down on the basin. Then we relaxed at the amazing Pear Tree restaurant, which I can’t recommend highly enough!

Our next move was to venture out onto the Bay of Islands, which certainly made us appreciate why it has its name.  Despite having visited a couple of times before, I had never made it out onto the water, and this was definitely a highlight of the trip, for the amazing scenery and of course the dolphins.

We’d heard at our backpackers that there were a couple of pods of dolphins in the Bay, and our captain was pretty confident we’d have a sighting.  Sure enough, about 10 minutes out of Russell the boats were converging and we saw the amazing sight of a pod of dolphins, swimming, jumping, and generally having a good time.  Magical!

The boat continued out to the Hole in the Rock, where our captain’s patter really kicked into high gear.  After a fairly hair-raising trip straight through the Rock, we headed back to the sunnier parts of the Bay.

Our boat tour stopped on Urupukapuka Island for about an hour, a welcome chance to stretch our legs and get a different perspective on the Bay.  The island has some beautiful bays and great vantage points – an hour definitely didn’t feel long enough to fully appreciate it.

We spent the afternoon wandering around Russell, formerly the Hellhole of the South Pacific.  It’s certainly a bit quieter now, and a very different vibe to the backpackers bustle of Paihia.  After an amazing lunch at the Duke of Marlborough, oldest pub in New Zealand, we took a friend’s recommendation to visit Bishop Pompalier’s Mission House and take the Printing Press tour.

It was a fascinating glimpse into the printing process, and the dedication of the missionaries.  Not only were they printing in extremely tough conditions, in a language they didn’t understand, but there were wars going on right outside the front door at the time.  Pretty amazing then that they produced hundreds of books in their short time they were resident in Russell.

I loved our time in the Bay of Islands – we visited plenty of spots which would be considered touristy, but were also fascinating and beautiful.  It definitely felt like a fitting finale to my last summer in New Zealand – for a little while!