Paihia...ahhhh...

We are now in Paihia in the Bay of Islands.  This is a small beach town with no end of walks/hikes/water sports/beaches/islands...lots to see and do.  Since it's summertime, the town is crowded, but once you walk about 30 seconds down the road, we're all by ourselves.

We went on a wonderful and varied 15k loop walk (took about 6 hours) that started near our motel and went up into the hills, through the forest, across the ridge and then down to the next little town of Opua at the water's edge and returned to Paihia along the coastline.  Here's some of what we saw:

 Beginning of the walk...

 ...through the forest...

...passing by different plant life...

...like this bright green moss...

...coming upon views like this...

...and bays like this...

and walking across raised boardwalks over swampy water

The last part of the track took a couple of hours walking right along the rocky coastline.  The tide was high so our feet got wet.  Oh well, the water felt great and cooled my aching toes!

 

The small rock ridge along the coastline.

The next day was to Wharepuke Falls and Rainbow Falls located near Kerikeri, a 20-minute drive from Paihia.  On this forest walk to these falls, we saw some unusual vegetation:

 Gnarly tree

 Close-up

 Tiniest fern

 An abundance of lily pads

Wharepuke Falls

 Rainbow Falls

Cascades of Rainbow Falls

The hike ended at an small clearing that had a restaurant, pretty gardens and naturally, a Tip Top ice cream stand.  This is also the location of New Zealand's oldest surviving stone building from the 1830's.  It has an interesting history:  started out as a trading post, was then a mission library, became an army barracks, was a center of Kauri tree gum trading, housed a boy's school, then became a general store and is now a tourist attraction as a museum and country store with wonderful (over-priced) 19th and 20th century collectables.  Really charming!

 Stone store at Kerikeri