Day 33 March 5th Bay of Islands



The Bay of Islands

We were determined that today would be a more 

Queen Mary 2

relaxing day after all the travelling and check ins and outs of yesterday.  We rose at a more leisurely pace and opened our curtains to find another very pleasant day with sun shining, plenty of blue sky and temperature in the low 20s.  We have breakfast included here and so it was off to the restaurant and enjoyed a good refuelling.  We returned to our room and I wrote and posted yesterday's blog while Christine was organising our wardrobes/cases etc and keeping up with her emails.  We then took the hotel courtesy shuttle bus into Paihia (the main town) and noticed a cruise boat ferrying people ashore - on zooming it was the Queen 

us relaxing

Mary 2 - and so the small town was quite crowded.  Near where we are staying is the historic Waitangi Treaty House where the first treaty was signed between the Maori and the British.  A lot of the cruise passengers were going to the exhibition there as it has been contentious up until recent times.  We had a look round the town, finalised our arrangements for our day tomorrow and then relaxed with a hokey pokey ice cream - a must do activity in New Zealand.



proper truck

me with the truck

We caught the shuttle back to the hotel and found there 
was a new truck in the car park which had a good number plate.
We had a walk round the hotel grounds and a quick look at the Treaty Grounds building but did not enter.  This area of New Zealand is a bit like Scilly but 

beach by the hotel

does not have so many good beaches as Scilly or other parts of NZ.  We have since freshened up and had our evening meal in the hotel.