Bay of Islands

Another top weekend has just passed. It started out on Friday arvo when Dave had convinced Toby and myself to travel 200km to Whangarei (www.whangarei.co.nz) to watch a practice rugby match between the Auckland Blues and the NSW Warratahs which supposedly started at 7.30pm. Toby and I left Manukau at 4.00pm and picked Dave up in the city on the way, as we neared Waipu, I rang Scotty and he alerted me to the fact the game was nearly over as it started at 6.00pm, instead of Dave's guess of 7.30pm. Shit happens and instead of traveling to Whangarei straight away we decided to drop in on scotty and have a beer or two before heading into Whangarei for the night of drinking. After a few beers and good laughs with scotty we headed into Whangarei to find a backpackers and pubs to keep the night moving. Before we knew it we had visited numerous pubs and sampled some strange beers, one in particular "sticky wicket" coming to mind. Another strange event for the night was when we popped into the pub/nightclub "heaven", there seemed to be a typical buccs party strip show, "dream girls" was a two girl strip show in the bar area, taking there clothes off (yes all of them) dancing around, creaming themselves up (take your mind out of the gutter), then selecting a guy from the crowd, and rubbing there creamy bodies all over them. Whilst standing there, still a little bewildered at the whole situation, I tried to look through the crowd of men to see what was happening and could actually see what she'd had for breakfast and more. So after a few more pubs Dave and I finished up at around 5.30am, whilst Toby traveled home with a local mum of the area and didnt return til 8.30 or so. Good Effort Toby! After some breakfast, we traveled around Whangarei looking at sites and ended up at the Waipu Caves which we explored with a small key ring light and mobile phone lights. It was a really great cave and was pretty cool inside. Once we stumbled out of the cave Toby and I dropped Dave off at the bus to return to Auckland whilst we traveled onto Paihia (www.paihia.co.nz) at the Bay of Islands (www.bayofislands.co.nz). By the time we got to Paihia which was only another hour up the road we were both that tired from the night/morning before (especially Toby), that we pulled up at the local beach, laid on the grassed and passed out for about an hour and a half. A really good move on our behalf. Once we had woken up we found a place to stay at the adventurer backpackers, which was really good, very small rooms but nice and clean, pool, spa, bbq, outdoor seating area and close to all the action. After a few beers around the pool we showered, dressed and hit the town, for food and drink. We had a few beers at the "Mako Bar" where we had fish and chips for dinner, then to the "Salty" to watch the end of the cricket, then next door to the "Pipi Lodge Backpackers Bar" til 12 when it closed then finished the night at the "Salty" bar again. We had a really great time at both places meeting plenty of great people from all over the world, but in particular a nice young german girl and young dutch girl, that Toby and i took a fancy too and were gentlemen and walked them back to there camping grounds a couple of kms away only to find out they were staying in a car and there was going to be no action for us. DOH! So a long walk home and we decided to hit the sack. Sunday Morning arrived with some of our other dormies waking up to go treking or some shit, making some noise anyway. Only after i had a shower and chatted to one of the other girls in the room, i found out Toby and i were snoring our heads off and were keeping the others awake-apparently i was the worst offender (drunk snore - the best kind). After some breakfast we hit the road and visited the Haruru Falls, very nice place to visit, wanted to jump in the water but Toby was a little on the scared side and since we didnt go for a swim there we headed to the beach. I jumped on a jet ski for 15 minutes and was having a great time, jumping and carving up some small swells in the bay. Rested after that at another "backpackers" beach, and waited for our fishing trip with captain bucko to start at 2pm. We headed out in the boat with 4 others, two canadian young guys, an iraqi and a kiwi (old lady). So four and half hours later we arrived at the jetty with a boat load of Snapper, Trevally and Carwire(this is a fish). Got a couple of bags of fillets from the fish and off we headed back to Auckland. A long and tiring trip, where Toby (first time driver in NZ) drove back the whole way. So finally after a massive weekend did it only come to an end at 12 oclock on Sunday night. What a great weekend at the Bay of Islands. I would recommend it, to all that visit NZ. Great place. Great People.

Please refer photos for a visual.