Russell — RachiePie

We left Auckland around 9:30am on Friday and made our way towards Russell and the Bay of Islands. The Bay of Islands encompasses 144 islands between Cape Brett and the Purerua Peninsula. It is an area known for its beauty and history.

The drive to Russell was beautiful and we made several stops along the way to take pictures and enjoy the scenery. We did encounter some heavy rain a few times during the drive, but overall it was not too bad.

We also made a stop at the Otuihau Whangarei Falls, an 86-foot waterfall falling vertically over basalt cliffs. There is a short loop track around the falls allowing you to see the falls from all angles - including overhead!

Before checking into our hotel, we decided to drive a bit further along the Whangamumu Road. This winding road hugs the coastline of the Te Rawhiti Inlet.

Once we arrived in Russell, we drove to the top of Maiki Hill where we could see 360-degree views of Russell and the surrounding area.

Saturday we woke early and headed three-hours north to Cape Reinga. We were debating whether or not to go as the drive is lengthy and the weather was not too good - cloudy with periods of heavy rain. Ultimately, we decided we would regret it if we did not make the drive out there and started our journey at 7:30am. It ended up taking us almost four hours to get there as we had to make an unscheduled detour. It turns out the day before, heavy rains washed out and closed the major road to Cape Reinga!! The detour road was completely unsealed, slow-going, and loads of puddles and potholes! We did eventually make it to Cape Reinga and were glad we made the decision to visit. It was beautiful and I only wish we had sunnier skies to see it in all of its glory. Cape Reinga is almost as far north as you can go in New Zealand and is where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean.

Nearby is the Te Paki Sand Dunes where we stopped briefly. A popular activity here is to go sand boarding on the dunes, but as it was raining, we did not get to try it out this time.

About an hour from Cape Reinga is Ninety Mile Beach (although, truth be told, the beach is actually 88-kilometers long!). Interestingly, the beach is officially a highway, but is really only suitable for 4WD vehicles. Alex and I did not rent a 4WD, but we did park near the beach and explored by foot. We ended up seeing several cars - they drive really fast on the sand - and both wished we had a car that could try it out! It looked like fun!

Although I wish we had better weather, we really enjoyed our time in the Bay of Islands. We stayed in Russell, home to the oldest church in New Zealand - Christ Church. Apparently, you can still see musket ball holes from the New Zealand Land Wars, but I could not find them when we visited. We leave tomorrow for Coromandel where we will be for two nights.