Paihia - A trip with Water Trials
October 23 2020 :
Thats an awesome Friday Evening. It is a long weekend in New Zealand due to the Labour Day. So why wait.. After a completely busy week , we hopped into our cars , packing our bags for a trippy weekend.
This time its going to be a pure Water trailed trip and the entire weekend is going to be in and around water. We are planning to go to Paihia - The Bay Of Islands.
The Bay of Islands sits on the north-eastern coast of New Zealand's North Island and comprises of more than 144 Islands.
As usual our travel bags are full of food , cooked and uncooked and ofcourse some new dresses for me🤗
Me , Vicky and two of our friends are going to take you through the awesome sights of the trip.
So as we started our journey , we stopped at two places. First at the Brynderwyn Scenic lookout , to have a free walk after a pretty long drive.
Glistening white sand dunes and the magnificent turquoise Beach that stretches for miles in both directions. It was low tide when we reached the beach and the retreated water has left a stint of magical glitters on the sand which was reflecting the puffy clouds and the blue sky.
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| Creating Footprints of Love |
As promised to Amudhan , we had a video call to show him the beach and my son advices me to carefully take a dip in he beach as it will be chill and relaxing.
We drove to YHA Paihia , our stay place for the next three days. It's a cute little budget friendly accommodation. We placed our food to be refrigerated in the kitchen area and changed to comfortable attires.
Food Time - Home made chapathis and a hot chicken curry to soothe our taste buds. A cool breezy night and hot food on a decently crafted wooden plank table makes the end of first day.
October 24 2020 : Day 2
Mile after mile of beach and rocky coastline surround the bay, which is dotted with 144 islands. It’s hugely popular as a summer retreat and getaway for those around Auckland.
We are split into two groups for today's trip. Vicky and Priya are doing their Scuba Dive and they are gonna kick it off their bucket list today. I am not pretty fascinated for underwater activities and me and Pravanjan planned to take the day trip to 'Russell.
You are now going to travel this day twice in a different route.
Route One - With Sumathi to the Russell
Route Two - With Vicky to the Scuba Dive
People taking the route one jumped into the passenger ferry along with our car and floated across the stunning harbour for 15 minutes, to the quaint historic town of Russell.
Romantic Russel with a Turquoise Harbour
We boarded our car inside the ferry which took us from Paihia in the bay of Islands to Russell across the Sea.
Its a historically crafted city and it claims pride being the first capital of New Zealand.
Stop 1 :
Russel is a year round destination full of charm and incredible scenery ,
Our first stop is 'The Strand beach. It is a cozy , artistic area with a Wharf along the coast. The lanes are beautifully designed with a fairy white themed buildings.
Lane with Fairy white themed buildings on one side and the turquiose beach on the other side
I felt like a queen when I walked past this lane which had posh , royal building to my left , chippy Emerald Green shaded beach to my right and the coastlines decorated with sit areas of the Cafe.
New Zealand makes me rich in heart day by day.
We walked along the Wharf to see kids and parents trying to fish with their fishing nets. After spending a quality time admiring the serene beauty of the waves we walked to see the Russell Museum.
Stop 2 :
This small museum has a well-presented Māori section, a large 1:5 scale model of Captain Cook’s Endeavour, a 10-minute video on the town’s history and an interactive digital map of Īpipiri, the Māori name for the region.
This crane was set up on Russell's frst Wharf in 1886 to off-load goofs into small trucks.
Now it has earned an hounourable retirement ashore 
Model of Endeavour
Stop 3 : Tapeka Point Track
This is a grassy rugged defined tracks which takes approximately 1 hour to complete the track. Its stunningly beautiful to see sea on both sides of the track . A breathtakingly colorful sight.
This is a quick description of the sight from a decent altitude in the track.
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| The Vibrant Colours |
Emerald Green crystal clear water close to the coastline studded with hard brown rocks in between. When you view a bit far , it gives the trading blue colours of the sea with white foamy waves decoring its own sea with its own style.
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| The view of the sea both the sides of the track |
When we reach the top of the hike , there is a spectacular view of the sea 360 degrees.
With some scenic photographs captured enroute we started our car for the next destination.
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| Thats mee |
Stop 4 - The long Beach
This is the beach that we saw from our hikers end point. Its quiet getaway point where there were many couples with their kids building their own sand castles. We sat for a while here just listening to the musical rhythm of the waves.
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| My new travel partner - The peach back bag stylishly posing in the tables of Long beach |
Stop 5 - Lunch time
It's time to fuel up and we chose to have Indian food as both me and my friend was not in a mood to go on food trials today. Some Garlic Naan and curry with the traditional touch gave energy to gear back to the rest of the day.
Stop 6 - Wineyards
We then drove through a 5 minute rugged drive to the greeny greeny vine yards featuring a divinely colorful shores below the valley. We spent some 10 minutes walking through the vine yards , the sun was graciously fierce today and we headed back to our car to apply a handful of moisturizer to the burning skin under heat..
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| Vine yards featuring the deep blue sea |
Stop 7 - The Church
Just a small walk around an age old cemetery and a calm church by sides of the Russell Town, we came back to the 'Royal Russell Street' to relax for a while before take our ferry back to Paihia to meet my husband and Priya who has gone for their Scuba dive.
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| Serenity |
Stop 8 - Russell Wharf Again
I wanted to experience the royalty again before we leave this charming surrounding . It was warm and I happily sat on the pebble laid shores of the calm sea immersing my legs in water as the gentle waves hit my feet in its own style and frequency. This is where I wrote the blog till this point.
We then took our car back in the ferry and here we meet our Scuba Divers - Vicky and Priya.
They had a lifetime experience underwater and they both felt very fulfilling after successfully completing their dive. Out of all the description of their experience, one thing which seemed cute to me is , When they were diving across the water to reach the coral reef which is 12feet below the sea level , there were colony of fishes which crossed them , the look that the fishes gave was so audacious. They wanted the dive to be a never ending one as they wished to live this heavenly feel for more time.
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| Thats Vicky signing off before diving into the Sea |
Here we meet together now. Went to the room freshened up , had some coffee , prepared some egg curry for night's dinner and started for a stroll to the lively shores of the Paihia beach. We had a relaxing time walking on the shores and then had a good time striking billiards with a mild DJ for quite a while and then went back to our stayplace for the night's rest.
October 25 2020 : Day 3
The day started with some hot vermicelli and coffee and we drove to the Haruru falls. This falls was a bit different from the other waterfalls of New Zealand. My husband said this falls reminds him of the 'Punnagai Mannan' scenes and he also went a step ahead to say that we will follow the scenes of the movie so that he gets an opportunity to marry 'Revathy'. 😃
The next stop is the Rainbow Falls. It was also a pretty little waterfall after a small walk.
Next comes the highlight of the day - " Hole in the Rock Cruise "
The Hole in the Rock is quite literally what the name says, a huge hole through the middle of a rock, or more precisely, an island. Out in the ocean sits a small island called Motukokako Island or Peircy Island as it was named by James Cook.
Its a heavenly sight to witness the location with a emerald green and blue mixed shiny water waving with us. Its a 5 hour cruise trip which takes us to an Island for an hour relaxing break. The captain of the cruise will be talking over microphone briefing us details of all the sights that we see during our travel. The beautiful part of the cruise trip is the 'Dolphin Watch'. There were some dolphins which were playing up and down and the captain gave us generous time to admire their beauty.
The light was first lit in February 1910, and kept watch on the coast until October 1978. What’s impressive and unique is that Cape Brett Lighthouse was the first in New Zealand to use a mercury bath for its rotational device. The lighthouse has also survived in place with its original equipment substantially intact through the years.
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| Spot the Cape Light House which is now 'resting' due to the Technical Growth |
You’ll finally reach the majestic Hole in the Rock after passing Cape Brett Lighthouse. This island is also known as “MotuKokako” in Maori. It was created over centuries by wind and waves, making it one of New Zealand’s naturally beautiful sites. Conservation of this island is very strict hence the Hole in the Rock is in pristine condition, with no animals introduced onto the island.
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| Hole in the Rock of 'Paihia Beach' |
The boat ride takes you through the hole, and circles around the island, so you get spectacular views from different angles.
Then we are here in a spectacular Island to chill out. It was a lively lovely place which shacks on the shores of the beach. We had a cool nap hearing the sounds of the waves and also enjoyed thoroughly the cute little happenings around.
"Columbus.. Columbus.. Vittachu leavu .. Kondada kandu pudichu konda oru theevu" moment
Kannadi podala na rendu kannum avinjudum pola 😋
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