Last weekend I took the dogs camping up North at Paihia (B) which is about 3.5 hours drive North of Auckland (A). This was my first visit to Bay of Islands and I picked a great weekend for it.
We stayed at a campground just steps away from Waitangi, the site of the signing of the treaty of Waitangi .
This is NZ's founding document allowing for the white folk to take the land from the not so white folk (sound familiar?) which is still quite controversial. This means that NZ's national day "Waitangi Day" is not really a celebration like Canada Day.
Unfortunately because there are Kiwi (birds) in the area, dogs are not allowed in many places. As much as Howie had been looking forward to hunting flightless birds, we didn't actually see any Kiwis. In fact very few Kiwi (people) have ever seen Kiwi (birds) in the wild. They are shy, nocturnal and scarce.
Howie and Tui book their first boat trip on the ferry over to Russel. Howie thought it was great. Tui really didn't like the noise of the engine and spent the whole trip shaking and trying to hide under the seats.
Tui Bird
Tui Dog
