Today was our first full day in New Zealand. We rented a car to drive around the North Island for the next few days. Thomas did all the driving, as he’s had more experience driving on the left side of the road. He has not, however, had experience driving cars that have the driver’s seat on the right side. It was funny (and annoying after a while) seeing him turn on the windshield wipers every time he wanted to turn or change lanes. Of course I doubt I could do any better.
We headed north to Russell on the Bay of Islands, which early missionaries called “the hellhole of the Pacific” due to its reputation as a sex and alcohol haven for whalers. On the way we stopped at our first New Zealand beach – Orewa. It was impressive, with hard-packed, fine brown sand and greenish-blue waters. After eating some surprisingly yummy Thai food we went to Whangarei Falls and took a 30-minute walk to its base and back. It was very pretty.
Finally, we took a ferry to small, quaint Russell. It reminded us of an Irish village we’d been to with Sean and Heidi. (All the prostitutes and drunk whalers seem to be gone.) We stayed at Lesley’s B&B, a cute house up in the hills owned by an artist. For dinner we had “take away” pizza and salad on a bench in front of the harbor while the sun set. This is the life!
-Elva
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