So last weekend we went up to the Bay of Islands for Easter!
We left early Friday morning and drove up to Paihia. We walked around the shops
and looked at the city. It’s super cute and right on the water. Me, Sara, and
Elise went looking for some dinner and found a really yummy Indian restaurant.
I decided to go look at the bakery downstairs though because I really wanted a
pie instead. When we got there they were getting ready to close so I got a pie
for cheap and then they gave us three donuts for free!! They were delicious!
Best night ever. We stayed in a hostel in Paihia that night and then we got up
in the morning and went out to the Waitangi treaty grounds. We learned all
about the history of the treaty and all of the disputes between the Maori and the
English. It was really interesting. Apparently when they translated the treaty
some of it was changed so the English version says something different from the
Maori version. There is a lot of anger towards the treaty still even today! On
Waitangi day a lot of the Maori people go to the treaty grounds and protest. We
also got to watch another cultural show about different types of Maori dance.
It was really cool. We also met up with Natalie again for the day! It was so
good to see her again. After we saw the treaty grounds we took the ferry over
to Russell. Our science professor invited us to stay with him for Easter
weekend at his beach house. It was gorgeous! It was right on the beach and
there were big windows everywhere so you could always see outside. It was
really quiet too except for the waves. We fell asleep listening to the waves
and it was so great! I wished we could stay there forever. It was just so
beautiful. Ian made dinner for us that night and it was delicious! My favorite
thing he made was bacon wrapped kumara. Kumara is like a sweet potato but way
better and everything tastes good with bacon! That night we decided to sneak
out and go to the beach! It was so funny because we thought we were so cool
sneaking out! Most of us had never done that before and it’s not like it really
mattered. Haha, it was so fun! The next day we went to church and then we came
back and made dinner for Ian and his wife. It definitely didn’t turn out the
way we had planned but I guess it was still food… Brooke and I made a very
delicious apple crumble though! It was so good! Then we did a little devotional
thing and called it a night. On Monday we drove all the way up to the tip of
the north island. On the way up we stopped at a really good fish and chips
place in this cute little harbor. We went to Cape Reinga and got to see where
the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea. It causes all these waves because of
the tides hitting each other and coming from all different directions. It’s so
cool! We met up with Natalie for the day and she took us to a beautiful beach
on the way home! It was a white sand beach and the water was so clear! It was
definitely one of my favorite beaches until we saw the sting ray we were
swimming with!! We kept thinking it was just our shadows in the water but then
we saw it when a wave came and we all screamed and ran out. It was pretty
funny. We stayed the night and then spent all day Tuesday driving home. It was
a really cool trip but overall I think I like the south island better than the
north island.
The Beach! So gorgeous :)
Cape Reinga
Where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean!
