Hi. Saturday am here and Steve is off playing his first game of cricket! He was very excited, although no kebab he kept to another tradition of running late for the start of the game.

Our Bay of Islands trip - one word WOW!



We spent Saturday to Thursday in Northland ( far north of the country) three days based in Pahia and two in Ahipara. Both extremely pretty places and we were very lucky in that we had brilliant sunshine for the whole trip. In Pahia we explored the original capital of the country -now called Russell - a sleepy little place which had a very colonial feel to it. It used to be called the hell hole of the north due to the fact that all the fihermen and whalers were based there and had a wild west style attitude. The missionaries were also drawn to the place to try and save everyone's souls and Russell therefore houses the oldest church in New Zealand.



More of the views from Russel of the BOI






Pahia itself is a seaside resort and has a small beach but is mostly the base for day trips out to the various islands and adventure actvities. We opted for the whole day excursion of dolphin watching on a beautiful catamaran. Great day and we still have the burnt noses to prove it! Saw some dolphins, lunch on the beach and snorkelling.































We also visited the site of the signing of The Treaty of Waitangi. A very historic little spot paying homage to the signing of the founding document of New Zealand in 1840.



It marked the Britsh Empire taking New zealand under its wing and power.

I have some more photos of the rest of the trip but I need to go and watch Steve play cricket now...so will update on the rest of the holiday tomorrow. Probably with a sore head as Mark is having a xmas/ end of cricket for xmas BBQ and I suspect we wil be drinking a lot...(not that much mum I promise)

Hope this finds you all well - and congratulations again to those reading this with bumps on the way! U know who u are!!!
L & S