Day 09 - Sunday 21st Stember

Our bus trip today was going to take us from Auckland to the Bay of Islands. We had to have our bags ready for the porter at 7am and the bus would leave at 8am. So we set the alarm for 6am so we could pack, have breakfast, check out and be ready on time. It had been raining overnight and there were still showers from time to time.

I'd bought a new carry-on bag about a week before we left on our holiday because I was concerned that my previous carry-on bag would be too deep for the luggage racks in the bus. The new bag fitted height-wise but was too wide and so I had to put it on a spare seat at the back of the bus. Although the bus can seat about 48 people, there were only about 30 people on board.

We headed north across the Auckland harbour bridge along the M1 motorway. We soon stopped for a photo opportunity of the harbour. Further north, the bus turned off the motorway to head towards the west coast.

After about two hours, we stopped at the small town of Matakohe to visit the Kauri Museum. This was a fascinating place. It turned out to be a larger museum that it appeared from the street - everything you want to know and see about Kauri timber and its products. After visiting the museum, we went to the cafe across the road for an early lunch.

The road north on the west coast became windy - especially when we went through the rain forest. Not surprisingly, it was raining in the rain forest. There we stopped at Tane Mahuta to take photos of a huge tree.

We reached Piahia on the Bay of Islands at about 3:15pm. There we went inside the ticket office at the marina to get the tickets for our tours tomorrow.

A Maori guide then joined the bus to give us a history of New Zealand and the Waitangi Treaty in particular. The bus took us to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds where we got off to see the Treaty House, a Maori ceremonial building, Maori boats and the visitor centre.

We reached our hotel soon after 5pm.

The whole APT group had a buffet dinner together in the hotel restaurant at 6:30pm. It was a good opportunity to chat and get to know the other people in the group.