Living with the Kiwis: Tutukaka, Matapouri, Paihi and Russell

People really weren’t kidding when you could almost see the whole north in a day! (Although you wouldn’t want to, the beaches are definitely worth spending time at!) We asked our motel host in the morning for his suggestions on places to see as well, and continued our drive up the Twin Coast Discovery highway (up the east and down the west). The first stop off was at Tutukaka marina for a few pictures, then on to Matapouri Beach, very beautiful! It was such a nice day so we spent a little bit of time there. Mom and Dad hiked to the mermaid pools, though there were no signs and trail markers like the book described. Apparently a rock collapsed blocking the trail, but we met someone who had found another way there so they decided to take on the challenge and hike up and over the rocks down to them. I decided just to lay on the beach while they did that. It was really rough terrain and not so nice on the feet, seeing as no one had proper shoes and ended up barefoot! What was supposed to be a 10 min walk turned out to be about an hour, including spending some time at the pools and Dad went skinny dipping! I started out laying in the sand mostly in the shade, but as the time went by the sun moved and ended up with quite the shorts tan! We next stopped in Kawakawa to see the most photographed toilets in NZ designed by some fancy architect, basically the town's only attraction! From there we drove up to Paihia, found a place to have some lunch and booked our cruise of the Bay of Islands for the next day. Then we decided to go check out Russell and took the little ferry over in the evening. Much to Mom’s dismay all the cute little shops were closed already, but we still walked around the town and up the waterfront. We decided to sit outside at a restaurant and have a glass of wine and some appetizers to watch the sunset. When we ferried back we attempted to go and find Haruru Falls, because according to the book they are nice to see at night. We had no such luck and the next day found out that they weren't too impressive after all, and RIGHT next to the road where we were the night before, just was too dark to find them! That night we stayed at a motel just down the road from the wharf (and got our little jug of milk!) so that we could easily be there at 8:45am for our cruise and had a nice convenient place to leave the car.