The tourist town of Paihia

This entry will be a bit shorter than usual because we didn't experience as much in Paihia as we usually do. Paihia is located in the East of the Far North of the North Island and is a tourist hot spot. We can already tell by the fact that there were never more than 7-8 other cars at our campsites and here there are suddenly about 30 vehicles. But since we are tourists ourselves, we can hardly complain about that. However, it would still be nicer if it were less crowded. Oh well!

Besides eating, there's not much on our agenda today, so we decide to take a little walk into town. Apart from many restaurants and quite a few tourists, there's not much for us to see. But what was really cool is that there's a piano outside on the pier in Paihia (just like in other places we've been to, like the harbor in Auckland)! It would be cool if we could play the piano well...

That red box behind the piano, which looks like a telephone booth, is actually the smallest free library in the world (I don't know if that's true, but it could be). Inside there are several shelves with books that you can just take. Cool!

Other than that, we're not too thrilled with Paihia itself, so we prefer to focus on cooking and eating. And the result is impressive! We have bell pepper rice with beans, corn, and chicken. And all of it in a delicious, dark sauce. Not bad for backpackers! And our first wine in New Zealand... it's going well!

PS: Right next to Paihia are the Haruru Falls, which we like better. They're not as beautifully located as the Whangarei Falls, but definitely worth a visit!