Day 129 Auckland-Pahia, New Zealand

Time to move on and also time to pick up the car although at this time we still weren’t sure what we were getting as it was going to be 1 of 3. Simon and I walked to the car hire place while Jill waited with the bags and once there I was curious to see what we were being given. At first as they were moving cars around I thought it was going to be this brand new silver shiny car although im not sure what it was at the time, however to my dismay we were getting the one behind yep the grotty looking bashed up black piece of shit that looked like it was worth about 50 quid. Still it was cheap to hire and it only had to get us around for 53 days. After checking the car for damage, scratches and dents yes it had plenty of them I signed the paperwork and off we went to pick Jill up. Within a mile it was already making strange knocking noises from the rear suspension so already I was concerned although not as concerned as later.
On the way to our next destination which was Paihia Simon looked at the map and found out we were near some huge boulder so he suggested we go and take at look at it. Well after driving 3 miles basically down a gravel track road we came to a dead end and got out of the car to see erm absolutely nothing in site at all. After closer inspection of the map this boulder was actually spelt bolder so whatever a bolder is in New Zealand its certainly not a huge stone spelt boulder as it is in England.
Anyway after driving back down the gravel track the next site we headed to was a lot more interesting to see and this was Pakiri Beach. The water here was so clean and clear and you could see all these weird and wonderfully coloured fish swimming around. Loads of people were snorkeling and scuba diving and there is also a glass bottomed boat you can go out on although unfortunately we didn’t have time to do any of these.
Then we had a look at another place to see on my list which was Whangerei Falls where we had a short walk around and take some photos before moving on.
We made it to Paihia around 4pm and were welcomed by Simon the guy in charge who turned out to be a fantastic guy who made our stay at Peppertree Lodge all the more enjoyable. The hostel is also a very nice place to stay with free kayaks, mountain bikes, tennis and table tennis to enjoy. My first thought was to get up early the following morning so I could go out and enjoy a few hours on one of the bikes and as Simon said i could have one from 7.30am that was my plan of action for tomorrow.
After throwing my bags in the room we then had a walk around the small town before retiring for a fairly early night.

Pakiri Beach

Pakiri Beach

Whangerei Falls

Whangerei Falls

Whangerei Falls