Northland: 3rd-8th Feb

I head North of Auckland to Paihia and the Bay of Islands with the intention of doing some diving.

4th Jan:
Diving in the Bay of Islands is cancelled due to heavy winds and swell. I'd woken up to the sound of the rain so it's something of a relief that there is no requirement to get into the water afterall! However there's not an awful lot to do in Paihia. I walk along the coast a little to Waitangi. The Waitangi treaty day is 6th Feb and on route there's already some stuff going on. The representative of the governor- the Crown's representative is officially welcomed (though the Maori welcome looks a tad hostile to my novice gaze). Later at the visitor centre I learn a bit more.

Waitangi day commemorates the treaty of 1840 between the UK and the United Tribes of New Zealand to try and preserve a lot of the land rights. Sometimes on Waitangi day there are a lot of protests but this year turned out to be peaceful. I'll learn a bit more about the Maori in a few days time.



5th:
An hour South to Whangerai (pronounced Fahn-ga-ray) a small town with an attractive riverside where the posh yachts moor up. After checking in I visit the Clapham's clocks - a collection of clocks which belonged to Archibald Clapham, a Yorkshire man who then settled in Whangerai. I finally discover why the in the nursery rhyme, the mouse did run up the clock! I take a bus out to the waterfalls and enjoy a bush walk back via a steep view point. In the evening I walk a few minutes from the hostel into the bush where I've been told glow worms can be found. I've never seen a glowworm. Its dark in the paucity of my torch beam but suddenly there they are. Pinpricks of light lighting up the bushes either side of the path, where many are close together it's like looking up at the night sky- beautiful, magical.

6th:
Finally I'm out for a dive- in the Poor Knights islands. It's some of the best subtropical diving in the world but I only really have tropical experience. I'm in a jolly thick wetsuit and hood and it's still cold but Tutukaka dive look after us well with hot drinks in between and we try to warm up in the sun. The Eastern Australian Current (EAC) actually brings some tropical fish down into this area- they shouldn't really be here. It's a kelp jungle - shifting in the swell amongst it are pretty little nudibranchs (sea slugs) and ugly camouflaged Scorpion fish.