Goodbye, Aotearoa! - Paihia

03/12 - 06/12

The crowning conclusion to our New Zealand trip was spent on the coast in the north. Paihia is a small town in the Bay of Islands, a wonderful region surrounded by turquoise blue sea and over 140 islands. We drove there from Coromandel for a good 5 hours. On the way, we made a short stop at a shopping center in Auckland (they are open on Sundays here) to replace a travel wear item. I am now the proud owner of a fanny pack - to the amusement of Luki, who has been teasing me about it since then! :)
At the shopping center, we also had the opportunity to take photos with Santa Claus because of the holiday season. This was the only situation so far where we were reminded of Christmas - 25 degrees Celsius and sunshine just don't connect our brains with it.

Our motel in Paihia was a dream - a huge room, a small veranda, and a private bathroom. We have only been able to enjoy this luxury once before in New Zealand, as the affordable rooms in most hostels are only equipped with shared bathrooms. We naturally felt very comfortable right from the start and spent the arrival day in the accommodation!

The next day, we took a road trip to the northernmost tip of the North Island. In total, we drove for about 6 hours, but it was worth it. In addition to Cape Reinga, which feels a bit like the end of the world and takes our breath away with its landscape, we also made a stop at Ninety-Mile Beach. This beach is actually only 64 miles long and can be driven on with cars. Many people use the incredibly long beach to drive back and forth with their cars. However, we skipped this because it is only recommended for vehicles with four-wheel drive - the risk of getting stuck in the sand is very high, as was impressively demonstrated to us by other cars. We watched for a while as a car and a tour bus tried to dig out the sunken tires from the sand. Well, I would say: those who can read have a clear advantage...

The following day, I really wanted to spend some time in the bay with an activity. Since neither of us had ever been sailing before, I booked a catamaran sailing trip. It wasn't cheap, but you can't help but splurge a little for the first sailing trip in a country that loves sailing...;)

We set off from Paihia in the morning with a few other passengers. Our skipper Luke and tour guide Rachel made every effort to make the excursion as pleasant as possible for us. We were already served tea and cookies on the way to Moturua Island, where we could individually occupy ourselves for two hours. It was quite windy on this day, which made the sea quite lively... so sometimes the catamaran rocked quite strongly back and forth.



After arriving at the island, we took a short track to the other side to a secluded bay where we peacefully ate our packed lunch and then spent time taking photos.







At 2 p.m., we headed back to Paihia and were served a cool beer on the way back. The sailing trip itself wasn't particularly exciting, but it brought me a lot of joy. I never really understood what was so great about sailing, but now I can relate to it pretty well. It's a beautiful and relaxing feeling to glide around the sea with wind power alone and anchor at secluded bays.

In the evening, we dined quite exquisitely - for our standards at least. Luki chose a good restaurant at the harbor, where we treated ourselves to a fine dinner and toasted to a truly unique time in this country!



Conclusion:

The Bay of Islands is not without reason one of the places where New Zealanders spend their Christmas and summer holidays. The bay with its numerous islands is stunningly beautiful. I am very happy that we made our last stop here. I could have easily spent a few more days there - even just sunbathing and enjoying the marine scenery.

After over 5 weeks in New Zealand and a total of 5,200 kilometers driven, it's time to say goodbye... Haere Ra, wonderful country! In such a short time, we have been able to see and experience an incredible variety of things here, which is probably not possible in many other countries in the world. New Zealand is relatively small, but offers diversity in every respect. The only thing I missed a bit here is the cultural component. The culture of the Maori people is almost nonexistent or only reduced to the tourism industry, and the culinary scene is very western-oriented and therefore nothing new for us.

Surprisingly, we liked the North Island a bit better than the South Island - we actually expected it to be the other way around. This may be related to the weather - everything is just a little more fun in sunshine and summer temperatures! :)

Hasta pronto!

E&L

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