Tuesday 2 July
We had an extra layer over the top of us lastnight so we were warmer and slept a bit better. We had also learned to wake up earlier to put the heating on to give it extra time to heat the van a little bit. We had breakfast, sorted everything then went to catch a ferry over to the island Russell.
We paid to park before going into the information centre to see about booking our ticket across. Once in there we decided we would pay more and just do a full tour of the islands with us being there, and also found out about free parking on the street that day too. So we moved the van, looked around the town a bit and looked at all its little quirks like lots of different painted flags on each of the paving stones. We found a takeaway hot drink before sitting outside the library because it had some free wifi whilst we waited for our ferry time.
The ferry over to Russell took about 15 minutes, it was quite a slow one. It was cold because we were sat outside but it was sunny so we had to wear our sunglasses even though we were cold. Russell is a small village that gives the impression of everybody knowing everybody and really utilises its harbour front for cafes and that kind of place. We had something like 3 hours to kill before our next ferry so we walked up to the flag staff to look out over the island and across the sea. It took around 45 minutes to get up there, the walk started over the beach and over rocks to a small opening in the forest. There were lots of really smooth stones and sea glass all over the rocks as well. Once in the forest it was just strange because it went from being marginally noisy with the sounds of the sea and general life going on to being utterly silent save for bird sounds. The plants were very odd at the time- now it's normal because we've been here for over a week when I'm writing this! But it's a very surreal mix of english looking plants and trees mixed in with subtropical plants all living together. We walked up a narrow walkway through the forest, trying to look for kiwi but not seeing any. We did see some little fan tails, it was almost like they were following us up the track. At the top it was a bit warmer because we were out of the shade and we had got hot from walking, so we spent a while sitting on a bench overlooking the views. The flag pole was erected by the first Europeans to arrive on the island about 200 years ago , they had some problems keeping it up though because the local Maori kept tearing the thing down. After a while we walked a little further and got to a nice sundial in the middle of a green on top of a big hill. There were little fantails flying really close to us and making a bit of a show, they could have been saying any number of things to us but we enjoyed watching them all the same. On the walk back down we went a different route and looked at all the interesting houses of odd shapes and sizes, all quite individualised which was nice to see. A lot of them had orange trees in their gardens too and we think we saw a kiwi going into a bush too. Once back down to the bottom we had a look around the place, we saw their oldest petrol station which had been there practically since cars were on the roads, it was tiny with just 2 pumps and still working for locals to go to. We also went to what was apparently the oldest church in New Zealand which was a white washed wooden building with lots of very old ( or old for nz standards anyway) stone gravestones. We went inside and the lectern had a bible one side english and one side Maori.
We had some time left to grab some lunch and chose a nice little cafe by the harbour front to sit and eat and have a pot of tea. We really enjoyed watching the people in front of us across the road, or rather the very bold duck. There was an elderly couple sat reading and a duck spent about 10 minutes ever so slowly creeping up to them and ended up on its "toes" reaching into her pocket, very entertaining to watch!
It was then time for the cruise which lasted around 2 and a half hours. It was quite a big ship and not many people on it which made it a lot better. We saw loads of dolphins swimming all around the boat, I don't think we got too many amazing photos because they come up in random places a bit too quick to capture it. They were so big, they were at least 6 foot long. We had a lady up at the top with a microphone telling us a bit about them, what their names were and some facts about their species. It was such a great experience and we even got to see a baby (called hobbit) with its mum.
We cruised around the islands, it was freezing but didnt take anything away from the day because the waters were so calm and it was clear so we could see things well. We were told Cook named a lot of the islands when he arrived here after people he knew from home, and Reynolds the guy behind the cigarette company bought one of the islands a few years ago. He ended up selling it back though because when he planned to commercialise it he was met by a massive outcry and lots of protestations over it and decided against it.
The day before they had seen humpback whales migrating through the waters, we were so excited to try and see some but unfortunately it wasn't to be. But we saw tonnes of dolphins, some little fairy penguins and lots of seals so we were very happy.
The destination of the cruise was the hole in the rock which didn't disappoint. There's no other way to describe it other than it was a big hole in one of the islands, and luckily the waters were calm enough for the captain to sail through which was pretty good. He said on some days the sea is so rough the waves practically fill the hole as they crash through.
Once we got back to Paihia we used the wifi at the library again to try and figure out where we were staying that evening, and on the way to it we stopped off at harura waterfall which is in a horseshoe shape to take some photos. By that time it was dusk so we went to the shop to stock up a little and fill up on petrol before making our way to the campsite. We saw possums along the way and arrived at just before 8pm. We had seen the site was free, and was just a field with a toilet block. It had said to drive down the gravel, across the ford and that's what we did despite the ford being a good inch deep. It was pitch black, we saw one other van parked just before the ford and that was it. We reached the end of the lane and decided to turn back to where we had seen the other van, only as we were turning round we got completely stuck in the grass.
After spending perhaps 45 minutes attempting to get out, using all kinds of things to get grip, we decided to walk up the small "road" back towards the ford where we went past the other van. We got to the ford and it was a good couple of inches deep, by this time it was cold and pitch black so we decided we would have to wait until morning. There was no signal on the phone and despite us flashing our torches towards the van nobody stirred. Liam was panicking but I wasn't really too bothered. Once back at the van we actually had a comfortable night, had the gas heating on and made some tea. By 10.30 we were in bed with our layers listening to the night sounds and hoping it didnt rain and make things worse.
