Our last week in The Bay of Islands was fun, as we had two sets of visitors.  Kerri and Andrew drove up from Auckland and we picked them up in Russell. It was a whistle stop visit , but we managed to squeeze in a beer at the oldest pub in New Zealand, as well as taking them to the oldest fishing club for another one.  Nice to catch up with them again – we have seen them a few times over the years. Not only in Simon’s Town, but in the Caribbean, Fiji and two years ago visited them here in New Zealand.  So many stories to tell and hear.

 

 

The next day, Mike’s brother and Nephew, arrived. John and Martin flew down from Sydney, and had a terrible drive up from Auckland, with major traffic diversions, resulting in a trip that took over 6 hours!  But we made sure it was worth it, taking them out into the bays to catch fish – and again the Snapper did not disappoint.  Here are the Drinkrow boys enjoying the fruits of their labours.

 

 

Martin had to go back to work on Monday, and the weather deteriorated, so we headed to the marina. With John having the car we were then able to explore a bit further, driving to KeriKeri and then another day down to Whangarei ..... pronounced  “Funga-ray”.  In Whangarei Mike was able to finalise our haul-out dates/ costs etc, and we also managed to visit a lot of tool stores!

 

On Thursday morning Johnny left to drive back to Auckland Airport and we headed out quickly, taking advantage of a decent weather day to get 75nm south.

 

We are now anchored in Urquharts Bay, the entrance to the river up to Whangarei Town.  Again we marvel at the incredible greenness of New Zealand.