Well, after our last night in Paihia, where we enjoyed a nice Thai meal overlooking the water front, it was time to leave our backpacker accommodation and head further south. We aimed to go back to the Treaty ground first to walk to the Haruru Falls located there, but according to one of our guidebooks it was classed as ´unremarkable´, so instead of a 10km hike there, we decided to leave this waterfront town and continue on our way.

We decided en-route, to take the car ferry across to Russell, another town within the Bay of Islands. At a cost of 11 NZ dollars, we drove the car onto the flat ferry and took the ten minute crossing to the other side of the bay.

Russell is another not dissimilar to where we have been staying, although it does house the 1836 Anglican church which is one of the few buildings to have survived the 1840 Maori wars. You can actually see, within its wooden timber front, musket ball holes shot during that war. The church is actually the oldest church in New Zealand, and looking at the tombstones in the graveyard outside, dating back to the mid 1800´s, I actually found a grave from a gentleman called Roger Salusbury Butler Clough from Braunstone, Northamptonshire, England dating back to 1883! During the purchase of the land to build this church by the British missionaries, it was agreed that the Maori people would have equal burial rights and so it was up until the cemetery´s closure in 1970.

We looked around the town briefly, which was very quaint with some nice little shops, but then felt that we should move on. The coastal road took us along a meandering trail with green slopes and trees on our right, and small, calm water bays on our left. Like Dani said, every bend seemed to be a perfect ´postcard shot´, the scenery was absolutely beautiful, only the pictures can show you, but even then, they might not do the scenes justice. We continued south towards the larger town of Whangarei. The outskirts of the town itself, from what we could see, were pretty ugly, with traffic light cross roads and a mash of motels, shops and burger joints. According to our book, the town does have a historic centre, but we chose to move towards the outskirts and found Whangarei Falls.

The old name for this area is Otuihau. It is said that the river was full of eels and that the local Maori set their traps here. The area is now known as Tikipunga. In the 1880´s and the 1900´s the falls were a very popular picnic spot. The 26.3m falls were formed approximately 2.5 million years ago. Here, on the grass covered slopes, we had our picnic and watched the local children use a rope swing, hanging from a riverside tree, to take it in turns to drop into the slow running water below.

From here, we headed along the coastal road, in what we thought was a southerly direction, only to discover after about an hour, that we were infact, back tracking up the coast to where we had left! After a few curses and f-words (:-D) we decided to call it a day and find somewhere to stay in this area. So as we followed the winding road at sea level, we came across the small village of Matapouri…..and what a picture perfect place this has turned out to be, stumbled upon purely by accident. We are staying in a two bedroomed apartment for the same price as the backpackers accommodation we had for the last two nights. The place is called Henderson Returned and Service Association (Inc), Mautapouri units (bit of a mouthful!) The apartment is huge and overlooks the lowland sand flats which are submerged by the Pacific ocean during high tide. As it was low tide when we arrived, we were able to dump our bags and go exploring. The sand is almost white as it runs up to the bottom of the green, forest covered hillsides surrounding the bay. The bird life is abundant here, as Dani´s photos will show. We have been told of a beach walk from here which leads to ´Whales Bay´,where yesterday, a pod of wild dolphins was spotted swimming with people in the bay. I guess this might be a focal point for us in the morning if the weather holds up, although cloud and rain is forecast.

So, I am now sitting here on the wooden terrace listening to the sound of crickets and the distant crashing waves. This place is amazing, with timber framed, beach front properties overlooking, what can only be described as, the most breathtaking beach scenery I have seen in a very long time!