Have you been to Paihia, Donald?

Sorry about the title - inside family joke, but couldn’t resist! 😜. So today was a long driving day - we left Tauranga at 7am to head north to the Bay of Islands on the north east coast of New Zealand - specifically, a lovely little town named Paihia. All was well for the first couple of hours, then we hit road construction about half an hour before Auckland, and we’re stuck in traffic for a good half hour. Got through that and continued on our way for another 4 hours, with a couple of rest breaks along the way to stretch our legs and take a few photos. We arrived in Paihia at 1:30, went to the visitor info centre to get a few maps (although there was probably no need as it’s a tiny town!), then checked into our hotel, which has amazing views from the balcony!

We got settled in, then went for a walk around the downtown area, checked out some stores and restaurants, went for a quick beverage, then found the place where we are to meet for our boat cruise on Thursday! Got in an hour of suntanning at the pool, then back to our place to get ready to go out for dinner. Not a ton of restaurants in this town, but we found a cute little place on the waterfront and had a nice dinner there.

We are both pretty tired after the long drive, but from here on in, we are on the “relaxation” part of the vacation, so chilling out on the balcony, and planning a slow, easy day for tomorrow!Read more