Driving to the Bay of Islands

had to get up early this morning to catch the bus to the top of North Island to Paihia. unfortunately we didn't get there till lunchtime and by the time we'd checked in and everything it was too late to get on any of the dolphin cruise, so instead i took a boat over to Russell, the first NZ capital, which was a little town with very little to do, and then spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Paihia.

Tomorrow i'm going up to 90 mile beach and to see everything up there.

Thanks for the ideas katie, although I'm not sure if things have changed since you went on one of these trips because there is only one bus a day to each place, so i dont think i can miss out some of the places inbetween Rotarua and Wellington, unless you meant for me to take public transport? if i get back in time tomorrow night, or if not then wednesday morning, i'm going to sit down and do a proper point by point plan of what i'm going to do, and see if i have enough time.

on an unrelated note, i would advise people not to phone me unless it's a real emergency. i've only been in NZ for 4 days and I've already spent more than 40pounds on my mobile. if you phone me from the Uk it will not only cost you a fortune but me too. text messages are fine though. i'm going to try and get a phone card, which would be a lot cheaper, so if you do want to speak to me then send me a text and I'll phone you back from a pay phone.