The Bay of Islands

After a long night of feral rain and howling wind, we woke up the next day in Russell to more steely grey sky and the promise of more rain.  Feeling a little disappointed, we hopped on a ferry on drove over to Paihia, the hub of the Bay of Islands.  We had planned on going to check out some waterfalls since the rain would be keeping us out of the water.  In a twist of luck however, the weather forecast turned out to be completely wrong and the sun was brilliantly shining by noon, drying all our soggy dreams of life on the beach.  

Since we were already en route, we decided to stick with the waterfall plan, and the first of the two was Haruru Falls.  Haruru Falls is a short drive out of Paihia and is short but wide fall in a horseshoe shape, and being so close to Paihia it's also the recipient of the lion's share of tourist traffic in the area.  It isn't a particularly breathtaking fall, but given that we viewed it right after so much rain the sheer volume of water coming over the falls was impressive.  

The second falls we visited was Rainbow Falls, located a little outside of the small rural town of Kerikeri.  This falls is pretty much off the tourist trail and we were hoping to have the chance to be able to get into the cave behind the falls, but once we arrived and seen the flood like conditions there was no way to get back there safely.  

No getting back there today!

After lunch we decided to head back over to Russell, since the weather didn't give us a fair chance to check it out.  I'm glad that we did.  Russell is a small town on the Bay of Islands across the water from Paihia that is full of character.  It was once infamously known as the "Hell Hole of the Pacific" as it was one of the first port towns in all of New Zealand and had a variety of colorful business catering primarily to the sailors as they came into port.  Rumor has it that the port town depicted in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie was modeled after Russell.  These days however, it's a beautiful little old town with a few nice restaurants, bars and hotels situated right on the waterfront.  

The waterfront in Russell

The receptionist working when we checked into our campsite in Russell the night before had recommended to us to check out some of the view points around the city, so Tapeka Point is where we headed next.  The hike was an uphill slog in the sun, but the views…oh the views.  All the way along the trail you are treated to sweeping panoramas of the wonderfully blue bay and forested coastline.  The addition of some well placed bazillion dollar homes made it feel as though you were looking over the Mediterranean coast.  Enough talk…check out the photos!

From the top!