More of my story!

Day 2
It started with an early morning because we needed to check out of our current room and move into another one to save a few bucks of course. The main theme of the day was RAIN. We maybe had maybe a couple short breaks from it during the day, but it was pretty constant throughout. We walked towards downtown on we found a church with a service about to start so I saw my first catholic service that wasn’t for a funeral, it was really interesting, and an experience I’m glad I had. After the service we meandered to down to the visitor center to find some things to do in Auckland on a rainy day since originally we were going to hike for the day, We found out that the museum was only 5 dollars so we were pretty sold on that. It was really cool, it was three levels and had some really cool exhibits especially about maori and south pacific peoples. After that we headed back to the hostel to jump online and update everyone who cared about our lives, and to check out our tent situation to see if we needed to purchase a rain fly or what. Well we had a rain fly, what we were missing however was our tent poles . But we figured oh well shit happens we’ll figure out something and maybe be able to make some sort of a lean to with it anyways, who knows. Then it was dinner time again and time to get ready to go out on the town, even though we had to get up at six the next morning. We had an awesome lasagna and salad for dinner with a couple pints then met up with a friends friend who attends Auckland Uni. He took us out to show us a couple bars, we had an awesome time. After a quick stop on the way home at McDonalds we found ourselves in bed at 1 or 1:30 am.
Day 3
We rolled out of bed painfully at 6 am packed up and hit the road to find our bus stop and check in and whatnot. After eating cheap micro waved eggs and toast at the café next to the bus stop we loaded up our bus which to our surprise was a tour bus, so we had a guide to tell us all about the areas along our path. The bust was really cool too it had windows all along the top giving us a panoramic view of the sky which today was a beautiful blue with the few spotty clouds. The only problem with the bus and it being a guide bus was we were planning on catch the second 4 hours of our needed 8 hours of sleep on it…but the guy didn’t stop talking, obviously greatly inhibiting our ability to pass out. After getting to Piahia we needed to find a place to stay, I had found that campsite for $12 a night which between the two of us seemed like the cheapest and best option, so after the bus driver drove us around to all the hostels to check the prices we went for a long long long walk to the other end of town only to find out the site was 12.50 per person, we had found a hostel for just 15 dollars, so the choice was pretty obvious. We moved into our hostel to find that not only did we have a sweet game, free kayak rental, bike rental, and a hot tub but we also had a 5 person dorm completely to ourselves! It was amazing! Since we had already spent the day looking for places to stay we grabbed one of the kayaks and headed out to one of the many island the Bay of Islands has to offer. It was really cool, we pulled up on one and explored it around and just explored around for awhile. When the weather looked like it was going to turn we headed back and played a little ping pong and darts, where we met and awesome Canadian couple we talked to til we went to bed for the night.
Day 4
Because of recent storms the water was a bit murky and not so good for snorkeling so instead we found a sweet guided sea kayak tour. They took us all over the place, out to this awesome waterfall where I conveniently tipped my kayak and made a bit of a fool of myself, but it was all in good fun. The was a bit cold and took my breath away upon hitting it but overall it was nice to do a little swimming, although I did end up looking my sun glasses because of it . After the waterfall we had a nice little tea and biscuit (cookie) lunch and had a nice chat with our guide. He was an awesome guy, from Maori descent, with tons of knowledge of the area, historically, ecologically, he just knew a ton. We also got to talk him about the difference between our cultures and lifestyles and general attitudes in life, which is always fun. After lunch the tide and come in and filled with mangrove swamps with water once again, allowing our kayaks to get back and into them. It was so fun! We got to go off on our own a bit and weave in and out of the trees and just explore in general. The weather for the most part cooperated with us too, on and off showers, clear blue skies then not so much but it really was pretty enjoyable being in the rain in the mangroves, so it didn’t really matter. We got back pretty early in the afternoon and were certainly ready to take full advantage of the hot tub and did we ever. After the tub we got back into regular clothes and headed into town just doing a bit of exploring. It’s certainly a cute little town with a bit of history, being the town adjacent to where the treaty of Waitangi was signed. We made ourselves some dinner following then decided to go back to the game room to enjoy the rest of our night.