Marc & Nora ROUND THE WORLD 2005/2006 - Join us!

Leaving Bay of Plenty we headed North towards the Bay of Islands. On the way we stopped in the small town of Kawakawa to look at and photograph some public toilets! HUH?!
Let me explain befroe you jump to conclusions ok? This is the town to which the Austrian artist/architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser spent the last 25 years of his life. As a tribute to the good people of Kawakawa he designed a new block of public toilets for their main street. Hundertwasser was once quoted as saying that "Straight lines are evil" so his designs are always really interesting and have distinct and unusual edge to them. Thankfully there were clean and vacant so we took some photos! Next week....dogging in Dunedin!

What to do in the Bay of Islands? Well not much if you have only one day but we decided on a trip to Russell which was the original but shortlived Capital of New Zealand. To get there by car the best way was to take a car ferry from Paihia across the small channel of water and over to Russel.

Russell itself is a really pretty little town and being the first European settlement in New Zealand it is full of beautiful examples of colonial architecture. We had a look around the small Russell museum which details the discovery and founding of the settlement by the Europeans , the signing of the trety of Waitangi, the eventual destruction and ruin of Russell as a Captial and other bits and pieces related to my fellow Middlesbrough(nian) Captian James Cook. Russell also has a really nice harbour front from which you can take sailing and scuba diving trips. But its also just nice for wandering along and stopping to eat and drink in some of the nice cafes and restaurant which line the beach front. Of course the major reason for thousands of tourists flocking to this area every Summer is to visit the islands themselves to Fish, Scuba or simply sail around and relax in its beauty.

Being short of time, money and Summer sun we headed back to Paihia via the ferry and headed west across the Northlands of New Zealands and parked up for the night.