We said goodbye to Whangaparaoa, loaded up the Jimny and set off North. The roads are very quiet, it’s wonderful to drive on them and even more to note….there are no potholes!
We drove for an hour, stopping in Mangawhai at the Mangawhai Tavern for lunch. It was just as you’d imagine a local Kiwi pub to be and the hub for activity for the village on a Sunday lunchtime. There were some mullet hairdo’s to be proud of! The food was lovely, I can highly recommend their Jalapeño Poppers and Andy’s fish and chips wasn’t too bad either.
The second half of the journey to Russell, in the beautiful Bay of Islands was slightly more interesting. We may have taken a slightly wrong turn somewhere and ended up doing a 10km stretch of driving on what can only be described as a dirt track over a mountain. It was a bit of a bone shaker of a drive but Jimny made it and we all survived relatively unscathed. It did bring back recollections of the drive up to Machu Picchu!
It took a couple of hours to get to Russell which is the most beautiful little town on the coast. We are staying in a hotel called the Duke of Marlborough and I’ve just been reliably informed that it was the first place in the whole of NZ to have a liquor license issued to it on the 30th of October 1840! It’s quite a historic building right on the seafront and seems to be the place everyone comes to eat, locals as well as holiday makers.
We have a balcony which looks out onto the seashore, so, much time is going to be spent watching the world go by over the next few days. It’s very sunny, even though it’s now Autumn here and it’s hit my maximum temperature of 22 degrees today! It’s getting a bit toastier later in the week.
Lunch at Mangawhai Tavern
Duke of Marlborough Hotel
The view from our room in Russell
Sunset in Russell
Russel looking beautiful! I miss NZ!! We kayaked around the Bay of Islands
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