Reuben and Katie: Bay of Islands

We're just back from a fantastic four days in the Bay of Islands together. We stayed in a cottage overlooking Paihia, and managed to visit a lot of the historic sites in the area, specifically Russell, Kerikeri, Te Waimate, and Waitangi. We also spent a leisurely day on Monday making our way back to Auckland via the east coast, passing through Mangawhai, Goat Island, Leigh etc.

I (Katie) spent a lot of time in the Bay of Islands area when growing up as my dad was the project manager for the restoration of both Pompallier Mission at Russell, and the Stone Store at Kerikeri, so a lot of family holidays and long weekends were had in the area. It was therefore quite special to go back again, and also to share it with Reuben.

It absolutely POURED most of the day we were at Russell, and we returned home very bedraggled and wet at the end of the day! But we still had a great time - we caught the ferry over from Paihia, and then started things off with a coffee overlooking the bay. We then spent most of the morning at Pompallier Mission (where the french catholics set up base and printed bibles (in maori) to give to the locals). The afternoon was spent walking -in the rain- around the village. We bought this cute-as woollen hat from a market stall for David, which he seems to like judging by his smile!

On Sunday we drove to Kerikeri and bought some local produce from the farmers market before looking through the Stone Store and adjacent Kemp House - the oldest stone building and wooden building in New Zealand respectively. Hearing a lot of the local history from some of the very knowledgeable guides was great, and added a little more insight into how things were at the time these buildings were built.

On the way back to Paihia we visited Te Waimate where another mission station was built - this time by english protestants. (Yes, apparently there was a little friction at times between the french catholics and english protestants!).