Drive to Whangarei Tuesday - January 28, 2014

TUESDAY – JANUARY 28, 2014

BOTTOM LINE:

Leave Paihia and drive south to Whangarei

BACK STORY:

After packing our bags and storing them at the hostel we took off for a long walk to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds where the Maori Natives and Europeans signed a peace treaty and established New Zealand.

By the time that we arrived we found that residents were free and visitors were to pay $25 each!  We had such a short time before we needed to head back that we passed on the entry.  The tours would have taken at least 2 hours.

 

Waitangi Beach

Treaty Plaque

 Once back to Paihia we stopped at el Café owned by Javier.  We had stopped by for dinner three times and each time we were told that the café was closing. Today we stopped for lunch.  We had wanted to try the advertised Mexican looking menu.  We found that the owner was from Chile and was more than happy to share information about our impending visit.  The prawn empanada was delicious and Bruce said that his quesadilla was as well.

We took a business card and asked for the name of any cafes in Chile that Javier might recommend. We thought it would be fun if we visited the restaurant and extended well wishes from Javier in New Zealand!  We promised to circle back with a post card from Chile.  Fun!

We returned to the hostel where the Kiwi Experience bus was waiting for people to load their possession and grab a seat for our trip south.  We needed to load our luggage last as we would be the first ones to be dropped off in the town of Whangarei.  The rest of the bus would be headed to Auckland.

There were five young men that were waiting to load onto the bus that were not on the bus driver’s list.  The bus was full and had to leave them behind.  It is very important in traveling like this to confirm and reconfirm the pick up date and time with the Kiwi Experience main office.  They young men had not followed protocol.

We checked into the 1928 hostel that we had stayed at before…it was like being home again.