Paihia and the Bay of Islands

                   

This past weekend I took a two day, one night trip up north to the Bay of Islands with Meaghan and Britta from Wheaton.  We took a tour bus-ish thing up, which took about 4.5 hours including stops.  On the way up we stopped at Whangarei Falls, a beautiful waterfall that was a little muddy due to some rain we experienced on the way there (actually, it was more like a cyclone, but I won’t get into that for fear of making my mother nervous…).  We also stopped at a beach (name?  I have no idea), where I of course had to have someone take a photo of me doing gymnastics/dance! 

Upon arrival at the Bay of Islands, which is a large bay in the far north of the North Island of New Zealand, we were promptly handed one free drink ticket as well as multiple “buy one get one free” drink tickets.  They sure do love to give Americans free alcohol in this country!  We checked in to our hostel, called the Pipi (yes, pronounced “pee-pee”) Place hostel, and went on a journey to see the water.  It was still a bit grey from the cyclone, so we went into a pub (the “Salty” something) and got our round of buy one, get one free drinks.  I had vegetarian nachos, which are definitely my favorite food to order in NZ – they’re amazing!  I certainly picked a good foreign country to be a vegetarian.

I won’t go into details, but needless to say these free drink tickets certainly added to the fun of the evening.  There was a pub in our hostel as well, and we spent most of our time watching (and yes, singing) karaoke and music videos on the large flatscreen TV.  Yes, I did sing karaoke.  No, I will not go into further detail.

The next day, the three Wheaton girls ventured out to Al Fresco’s (Alberto’s?  I have no idea) restaurant and had an amazing and cheap breakfast on the water.  We then decided to take a guided canoe tour led by a Maori man.  We spent 3 hours in a “Waka,” Maori for “canoe” with our guide who was CRAZY!  He was quite the character, but also full of information and stories about the Maori history of the Bay of Islands. He took us to the treaty grounds where the Maori and English settlers signed the big treaty thing that took place in the 1800s (I think it was 1840 but don’t quote me on that), and we also learned a bit about canoeing at the same time!  The Maori greeting involves touching noses and foreheads together, so we snapped photos of us doing this to the Maori spirit that protects the giant Waka on the treaty grounds.

 

At one point, the water was a bit rough and our boat seemed on the verge of capsizing.  Our Waka was constructed like a regular (gigantic, 7-person) canoe, but with two beams stretching out the left side, holding up an orange jet-ski shaped floatation device.  This was to help center our weight and keep the boat from capsizing.  Unfortunately, this only works if the seas are calm enough for the floaty thing to stay on/in the water.  So… our guide yells to me that he wants me to shimmy out onto one of the beams and sit there to balance our weight.  I respond with the appropriate “ARE YOU SERIOUS?!” face, but was met with a serious glare that told me I better do this or my Von Zipper sunglasses might end up at the bottom of the sea.  I did as I was told and shimmied onto the beam.  It was actually quite fun to ride on the rocky seas while the others did all the paddling!  My weight kept the boat from capsizing and although our bags got pretty soaked, the group didn’t end up getting too wet (although as we were dismounting from the canoe, I managed to trip and fall into the water and completely drench myself – oops!).

Overall, we had a great time at the Bay of Islands.  Although I am a little sunburnt, the trip was certainly something I won’t forget for a while.  I’m glad I got to share it with my new friends from Wheaton!