Auckland to Russell in the North

Today was a travel day from Auckland to the quaint town of Russell in the Bay of Islands. Not much to report, except Terry did the driving and Suzanne applied the hand break in the ultimate payback for Suzanne's driving the day before. We have concluded that it is just plain hairy in the front passenger seat on the other side of the road.

Stopped for lunch in Whangarei...sort of a nice bigger town that broke up the 4 hour drive. Again, beautiful country, rolling hills, cattle, sheep, rivers, lush green and brown landscape.

Took a car ferry to Russell and are staying in a two bedroom cottage with full kitchen, laundry-the works. You walk a block to the strand and harbor with shops and restaurants on the water. It was once the largest whaling port in the Southern Hemisphere and a very rough place. We had drinks on the deck of the Duke of Marlborough Hotel, which has the oldest liqueur license in NZ and is very charming. Yummy calamari! It also has the oldest Catholic Church in NZ.

A quiet cheese and cracker dinner in our cottage and tomorrow we are off to Waitaigi Treaty Grounds, where the Maori treaty was signed, for some history, tours and traditional dances. (Terry would really like to do a full hangi with show, which is a Maori feast with the works, but Jim is putting his foot down: see Condoble...) We'll take a boat ride around the islands tomorrow afternoon for dolphins and a view of the 144 islands. Still time to convince everyone to do a hangi in Rotorua...