Well, tony did a marathon drive from Napier to Russell - 623kms. A long day as we did stop every coup,e of hours and there was an extra hour added due to roadworks.

but it was worth it as Russell was just lovely. It is in the Bay of Islands north of Auckland so we had to drive past Auckland- my planning with this one wasn’t so great but can’t win them all. We hadn’t decided what we would do till after we arrived in NZ and by that time we had booked the train.

It was and idyllic place. We had a quaint apartment reached by some steep steps - bit tricky but we managed to fall down. It was in a great spot which helped. The Bay is so picturesque - blue waters and islands popping up all over the place, a neat shopping area with cafes, pubs and restaurants.

As we had such a long day, we visited this great beer garden and had delicious pizza for tea that night. The next morning, we had a wander around town, went to mass (it was Sunday) then drove over to a winery for lunch. ( this was dads birthday lunch) We then went home for a rest! Later, we went for a walk to the next town which was uphill and down dale for about 3 kms and back again. This justified a call into the beer garden on the way home.

The next day, we went for a beautiful cruise around the bay which took us out to an island with a whole through it and around a lot of the islands. We loved it.

That night, we went to a very nice pub called ‘Duke of Marlborough’ and had another delicious meal which celebrated our Anniversary. And that was that. We drove to Auckland and met up with Sara who is on exchange for 3 weeks. Sara is going to school and living with a family. It was just lovely to see her.

some snaps from the Bay of Islands

a Moreton Bay fig which is a couple of hundred years old.