10-11/2 Auckland-Paihia/Russell (Bay of Islands)

Yesterday we left Auckland at 7.30 and we arrived here 18.00. Of course we had many stops on our way to Paihia, some walks like a waterfall, a big Kaui tree, the toilet of Hundertwasser and the museum about the treaty of Waitangi.

10/2 Auckland-Paihia

Right now I am in Paihia, in the Far North, 174° 40 E, 35° 16' S

The appartment/motel is just 2 minutes from the ocean. Although the people of the group are nice, it is sometimes also a bit hard to adapt to traveling with a group (20 people) and living this pace, sometimes too fast and sometimes too slow for me. I just had to giggle seeing that we got 27 minutes for a walk that was indicated to be 20 minutes. And of course we always have to wait for someone before we can leave. The guide offered a lot of options for excursions, but I decided to take it slowly. There will be plenty of time for me to be on a big boat, seeing dolphins or other big animals, living in the sea. It is hard for me that you have to decide this early what you want to do next week. So I just decide that today was early enough to decide what to do whatever I wanted to do today. And I have had a nice day. So I went by boat to Russell, a nice village on the other side and I've visited two museums there. In one museum was a replica of the Endeavour, the ship of James Cook and in the other museum a woman explained how books are printed and binded. And as always I enjoy sitting on a bench or on the grass, just thinking how lucky I feel to be here.

11/2 Paihia/Russell