Frosty reception in Auckland and an evening in Paihia (eventually).

Really late Wednesday 1st of January

Our rescheduled flight touched/bounced down in Auckland somewhere around 1:30 am local time. I did manage to get a "thanks bro" from a local dad for letting his kids clear out of the plane ahead of us.

The entry section of Auckland Airport either has a charming installation of running streams and forest animal noises, or something seriously wrong is going on in their ceilings.

We managed to get waved on through the Green Lane at customs (ie the one without X-rays, full body scanners, and the snapping of rubber gloves), which was kind of nice. Even better, our car hire folk were still open and had a car for us. Driving along the motorway into the city, the chattering of teeth from the back seat drew our attention to the fact that the air-conditioning had been set on "antarctic blast". This overly-enthusiastic usage of air-conditioning continued at our lodging for the night. I'm not sure why our room had a temperature setting of 15 degrees, but it really wasn't necessary. We eventually got to sleep at 3 am, just in time for to get up at eight. 

Thursday 2nd of January

There was a bit of holiday traffic on our way north, so we called into the township of Warkworth with pretty much the sole intent of imbibing hot chocolate at the Chocolate Brown Cafe.

Suitably caffeinated / sugared up, we passed through Leigh and on to Goat Island Marine Reserve. The place was gorgeous, the water was nearly as cold as last night's accommodation, and Josh became acquainted with a couple of oyster shells. We managed to successfully swim across to the Island and saw a tonne of tourist-tolerant fish.

Goat Island off in the background.

We decided to pass on the $28 dollar burgers at a nearby cafe and continue on to the next township. Jen discovered a "short-cut" across to Wellsford, one that included a sobering combination of hair-pins and corrugated gravel roads. On the up-side, some of the views were pretty nice.

Just north of Wellsford, a car towing a boat decided to get a bit contact-y with a power line. It sounds like everyone was fine (aside from starting a small fire), but all traffic was diverted to yet another windy dirt road. 

Can you say Recirculated Air?

We finally made it to Paihia (of the Bay of Islands fame), and have discovered our digs for the next couple of nights is actually pretty nice - with views over above-mentioned Bay. Aside from me being nearly mowed down by a distracted driver (I'm not sure what part of a husky gent on a well-lit pedestrian crossing on a straight stretch of road was hard to register), it was a reasonably uneventful stroll to pick up some fish and chips for dinner.

Because Hamish hadn't had enough water today.

We've decided to push back our drive to Cape Reinga until Saturday, giving us a day to sleep-in and check out the very local surrounds. I'm pretty sure our Saturday selves will be fairly cranky with this decision, but our Friday selves will think we are awesome.