We are coming to the end of our three day sojourn in Russell.
I haven’t posted much as we’ve been very busy booking accommodation for the rest of our trip. We had foolishly thought that we’d have no trouble due to the lack of international tourists, forgetting that of course all the Kiwis who’d normally be cruising the Med or skiing in Aspen are trapped here too. We’ve had to make a few compromises – there’s the odd shared bathroom here and there – but mostly it’s worked out OK.
Went to Paihia on the ferry on our second night, a lovely 15 minute trip under clear skies. The lack of wind everywhere else in NZ out of Wellington is a constant surprise. Paihia is a place that’s en route to other more interesting destinations, such as Waitangi and Russell. It’s actually surprisingly reminiscent of Picton, a similarly en route town. When we got off the ferry, we were looking for somewhere to eat. The restaurant that’s right next to the ferry has a menu that’s spookily identical to the hotel we are staying in, which looked good but in practice was blanded out for the middle class elderly palate. We weren’t going to fall for that a second time! We wondered briefly about doing a dinner cruise. There was no one in the booth at the time so we asked a passing chef about it. He said he didn’t work there but had heard it was terrible and he’d not recommend it – complete with repetitive throat cutting gestures with his thumb which is the universal language for ‘don’t do it!’ And he then disappeared into the back entrance of another restaurant. It was a completely bizarre interaction. After that we found another restaurant perched over the water with presumably normal staff, and had a very pleasant meal. I’ve got into the habit of dessert cocktails instead of actual desserts this week, and my chocolate martini was delicious.
As an antidote to all this calorie intake, yesterday we did a very nice walk from the ferry terminal at Okiato back to Russell.
It was lovely, with beautiful native bush and several boardwalks across mangrove swamps. The loop past the transfer station was a not particularly welcome surprise but I guess you have to work with what you’ve got. We tried to drop into the Russell Museum on our way back to the hotel, as I didn’t go when I was here with the girls on our cruise in December, but unfortunately it’s closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays so it’s going to have to wait until next time.
Off to Keri Keri today. The weather has been lovely so far but it’s due to crap out any time. Hey ho!