KEY ATTRACTIONS IN BAY OF ISLANDS NEW ZEALAND - THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW ON-LINE INFORMATION LINKS TO TRAVEL BLOGS
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Vintage Rwy Winery Glow Worms Rainbow Falls Club Paihia Kohukohu Russell Flagstaff Swordfish Clb Zane Grey
Home | Summary | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Day 9 | Day 10 | Day 11 | Disclaimer | CopyrightCARLINE DUFFY TRAVEL BLOG - DAY 8TRIP TO BAY OF ISLANDS NEW ZEALAND - 23 Aug 2017 to 02 Sep 2017 DAY ATTRACTIONS 08 Wed 30 Sep 2017 Paihia - Kawakawa & Russell Flagstaff
a Kawakawa Bay of Islands [BoI] Vintage Railway
b Russel Historic Flagstaff
c The Swordfish Club - Author Zane Grey's influence on BoI
It poured with rain during the night and the sound was like the surf pounding on the beach
We woke up in the morning to a beautiful day and decided to take a short trip to Kawakawa which
was about 20km travelling south along State Hwy 11
The brochure said Kawakawa had a number of places of interest including
1 The oldest railroad going through the town
2 The oldest still operational hotel in NZ "The Hunted Star Hotel: established 1876"
3 the Hundertwasser public toilet
4 Glow worm caves at nearby Kawiti
5
We arrived in Kawakawa at about 11 am and noticed the broad high street with the railroad track
running down the centre of the town
There were a number of old buildings lining both sides of the street including the "Kings Theatre"
which was next to the "Hunted Star Hotel"
On the other side of the "Kings Theatre" was the brightly coloured "Bonanza Bargains Surplus
Clothing Store". "Kawakawa Bakehouse Café and Roast" was next to that and the "Ministry of Social
Development" with huge security guard among the major buildings on the south side of the main
Street
Next to the Ministry was "The Hundertwasser Toilet" which was designed by Hubert
HUNDERTWASSER is 1999 and is a large brightly colour male & female toilet with a large tree in the
middle and a myriad of colourful glass bottles and tiles and plants on the roof. The tiles were made
by the local schoolchildren!
This public amenity also has a number of brightly coloured totem poles and is on a zebra crossing
with replica totem poles on the other side of the road
Having visited the "The Hundertwasser Toilet" and the park behind it we went to the train station to
catch the historic train - the major highlight of the town
Imagine our disappointment to find the Bay of Islands [BOI] Vintage Railway only runs on Fri, Sat and
Sun in Winter and there was no mention of that in the brochures
So we went to "The Hunted Star Hotel" to find that was shut !
That only left the "Glow Worm caves" to visit so we drove down the road only to find the caves were
shut due to flooding from the overnight rain !
So plan D was to drive to "Russell" via the Car-Ferry to re-visit some of the places we had seen on
Sat 26 Aug
On the way to the Russell Car Ferry we stopped to buy some oysters - a bargain at NZ $ 20 a dozen
Imagine Carline's delight when we found there were 16 in the Oyster box when we opened them in
Russell !
The Russell car ferry was NZ$ 12.50 one way NZ $ 25.00 return and took about 10 minutes
The Ferry travels from Opua to Okiato which has a sign saying it is the first capital of New Zealand
It is about a 10 minute drive to Russell where we decided to eat the Oysters by the ferry
These were big fresh-water creamy oysters were very difficult to swallow whole so had to be chewed
I made the mistake of going to the bathroom and when I returned discovered Carline had eaten 10
of the Oysters leaving me with just 6 - she could not stop telling me how good they were particularly
the last 4 !
After that we decided to walk to the historic Russell Flagstaff which was about a 20-minute walk
In 1853 this Flagstaff had been carried up to the top by 400 Volunteers of both Maoris and white
settlers to replace the other 4 Flagstaffs which had been burnt down from 1840-1845
It must have been a tremendous effort back them to carry it to the top and hoist it !
The walk back down to the beach gave us time to appreciate the many splendid houses that abound
in Russell
We travelled back to Paihia and walked along the beach front and visited the Bay of Islands Swordfish
Club which has one of the best views of Paihia Beachfront from its extensive restaurant seating
There is a plethora of game fishing trophies and the history of the Club is amazing and well worth a
visit to dine there
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