It was about a 5 hour trip in the car and the weather was not exactly 'holiday-y" but it was a break. Heaven knows we needed it. The apartment we stayed in was MASSIVE and so cosy... a spa pool and all - joy... I love a spa. Well to be honest I love a spa for like ten minutes - then I get bored and start trying to make a whirlpool or spray Mike with the jets. I'm really about 10 ;)
We hit the ferry to Russell... tried to find somewhere for lunch - walked around the old church. Very very old graves, sad really... so many children. And of course the bullet holes from the battles the Bay of Islands hosted in our young country's birth years.
...then we climbed the hill to where Hone Heke's mates chopped down the flag pole (for my international buddys - Hone Heke was a Maori Chef who ordered the cutting down of the flagpole at Russell. This was intended to show disapproval of the British government. Over the following months, it was re-erected and cut down another three more times. LINK to historically accurate video)...
...visited Waitangi - FYI if you are a kiwi and flash them your drivers licence they wave the $50! entrance fee - honestly if I was international I'd feel a tad ripped off by that, just saying...
...spent a day in Kerikeri and brought some genuine actual oranges...
...and then drove ALLLLLL the way to the tippy top of the country (well as far as you can get) to Cape Reinga. 
Now a days it's sealed all the way and they've got this fancy archway you walk under and it is goes ''whooooooooo-woooooo". That's all very nice but I really miss the old post office they used to have up there. It was always the biggest joy to get a jellytip icecream and post a postcard from the shop... and it'd get a fancy Cape Reinga postmark on it.
The weirdest thing is that I came home and cleaned out the kitchen draws... I got this urge to declutter - turns out I could live in an apartment, a simple, basic essentials only exisitance. Yeah right, I'd fill it with crafty, kitschy, vintage random "character" (read that junk) in a month straight haha.
5 comments:
love the sound of that mini break!!! as for the price of entry to waitangi...that IS steep!!!!
So glad you enjoyed your mini break and great to see you blogging again! :) Those oranges look delish, I'm sure they were :) Ouch, expensive to go to Waitangi, no way I'd pay that!
Awesome photos Neen, love that you guys got away and glad to see that Kerikeri still has it's roadside stalls. You're looking absolutley fabulous my friend.
so when we visit Waitangi, we'll be sure to show your i.d. ;) glad you guys had a nice trip, love all the photos as always. i love de-cluttering, but it's amazing how much crap i can accumulate back in a matter of moments *eye roll*
Great photos - visiting this end of the country is on our to - do list :o)
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