Dec 21 to Dec 23 - The Bay of Islands, Vol. 1

The sun came out for us today.  The harbor is beautiful. 

We were just putzing around doing laundry and paying the toll for our Saturday drive when Lee suggested we take the next couple of days and check out Russell (as recommended by Chris) and the Bay of Islands.  Lee booked a room at the Duke of Marlborough hotel and we took off.

The weather was fine - unlike our last trip north - and the drive in the sun was beautiful with, as always, wonderful rolling hills with tree ferns and Pohutukawa (New Zealand Christmas) Trees and lots of cows and sheep in the fields.  We stopped for gas and bought a couple of small bags of cheese curls (BBQ rib and Cheese & Bacon), drove a few more miles and stopped to have our sandwiches and chips.  After Whangarei, the road was very interesting; a few one lane bridges and a couple of train crossings. 

The Garmin has done a magnificent job directing us around; however, this time she seemed to throw us a "curve ball".  It went something like this: "Follow this road for 1/2 mile and keep left on that road.  Continue on that road and take a sharp left, then get on the ferry."  What ferry?
 
We had seen the ferry lane, but no ferry was mentioned until we were about 50 yards away.  We whipped a U-turn, found a parking lot and checked the map since we didn't realize we had to take a ferry.  OK, so we now believed her and got back into the lane and we were the last car on this cute little ferry.  The ride lasted about 10 minutes or so and was an 'easy on / easy off'. 

A few more curvy miles and we drove into Russell.  We parked and checked in at the Duke and then walked around and checked out the shops.  With the sun out, Lee was hot for a hat.  The first shop also had the "Great Sights" touring desk.  The person told us of a bit of savings if we booked the combination bus tour to Cape Reinga and the boat ride to the Hole in the Rock.  We mulled that over as we walked through the shops in town.  Lee found a great hat at the pharmacy.  The Art gallery was fabulous - we loved almost everything there.  We wound our way back to the 1st store and Lee booked our tour while Di picked up her hat.

Back to the hotel to take pictures off the camera (tomorrow will be a BIG photo op!), have a short rest, and prepare for dinner at the Duke.



Dinner was very good; appetizer -not shown - of Paua (NZ Abalone), Lee had the duck and Di had the rack of lamb (Heaven!).  And the dessert was wonderful - Orange Panacotta with Chocolate Ice Cream on Pistachios... to die for!

The wines have been excellent - again rivaling and passing those back in the states!   We spent a bit of time in the bar and then positioned the fan in the window to get some sleep for the morning adventure.