Bay of Islands

was the northernmost point of my trip to New Zealand.

I was going towards the village of

Paihia

- this is the starting point of my "water tour".

I went there across the Auckland Bridge. Once you could try bungee jumping on it, but now you can only take a walk on the bridge constructions, similar to the famous bridge in Sydney. By the way, it is necessary to book this activity in advance.

Kauri tree is a real symbol of New Zealand. Probably McKinney Kauri is the oldest and most well-known representative of these trees. Its age ranges from 800 to 900 years. It is located near the town of Warkworth, just down the road to the Bay of Islands. When you see this gigantic tree, you think how many generations of people it has already watched. Developing technical progress, trains, automobiles, aircrafts - and the tree still stands on its original site.

There is also a small local museum which presents the original New Zealand "buildings" of the early 20th century. This small stall is a former prison of the year 1912.

Here's the "decoration" of the prison premises. It seems to me that previously it was pretty easy to escape from this jail with the help of "friends from outside".

Here's an old telephone booth.

This is a post office.

Meanwhile, a New Zealand surf camp arrived to the same tree. The German group came in New Zealand to learn how to surf. I do not know how comfortable the training was, but the ocean here in spring is very, very cold.

The town of Paihia was the final point of my journey. Here begins the sea "Bay of Islands" tour.

Paihia is a little cute New Zealand settlement. However, its fire station looks pretty modern.

When I travel and I go to the supermarket, I always try to find and taste the brands that I have never known before and that are produced solely in this country. Such product in New Zealand is the lemonade called "Lemon and Paeroa".

Its taste is a bit similar to usual Sprite, but the main thing is that I have never seen this lemonade in any country of the world.

In New Zealand, as well as in any civilized country, you can order any license plate for the money paid officially to the state budget. 

Here's a quay in the town of Paihia. Boats depart from here for the boat tour of the

Bay of Islands

.

This water trip gives an opportunity to see dolphins with a probability of almost 99.99%. This wooden monument just before embarkation is an evidenced of that fact.

The boat departed and the tour started. Before entering the boat, each of us was given a special map of the Bay of Islands showing all the stops along the way - for us to watch the route on our own.

We met such nice uninhabited islands on the way.

It's interesting to know, that our guide was our captain at the same time. Moreover, our guide was a girl. She was telling us about the beauties of the New Zealand Bay of Islands all the way.

The boat sails past the beautiful scenery, sometimes past very secluded houses in the mountains.

We continue our tour (New Zealand. My Day in the Bay of Islands. P.2).