Paihia, ANZAC day, the beach, and the fickleness of cats...

I spend my other days in Paihia visiting Russell - which I hit on ANZAC day, so I watch the RSA parade (and watch the ladies of the historic house have a meltdown when they realise they've hung the NZ flag upside down from the flagpole... oh dear), visit the old Missionary House, which has been everything from bookbinders to printworks to tannery, and hang out on the beach. I also get my own private Nakedbus to KeriKeri, with Terry the busdriver, who basically gives me my own charter service, dropping me off at end of town (the top of the hill), and picking me up later at the other end of town, near the Stone Store (the bottom of the hill), so I don't have to trek all the way back up. All that for a $1 fare! KeriKeri is packed with craft shops and fruit'n'veggie stands, since it's a big produce, er, producer. I finish the day with some chocolates, crafty things and massive bag of amazing tasty fruit called feijoas - they're sort of like kiwi fruit but not hairy and sweeter. There's also an historic church, and the Stone Store, which still sells everything from iron nails to preserves to coarse sacks, as it did a hundred years ago, though now it's more of a tourist attraction than anything else.

On my last night in Paihia I hit the strip of bars (calling it a strip makes it sound so much more than, erm, four bars) with three guys (English, Dutch & American) and an American girl from the hostel, picking up along the way an incredibly loud Irish girl and some germans (there's always some germans), as well as a slightly strange Isreali guy who keeps trying to pass of Borat jokes as his own, along the way. The bars are all located on the main hostel-strip of the town (Pickled Parrot is tucked away in quieter area a street away). We start at the dead-as pub quiz at one end of the strip, and end up dancing to Kings of Leon and Doors covers at the other. The night ends with Sam, the English guy, sparked off by the offhand behaviour of the hostel cat, treating us to a surprisingly passionate rant about the fickleness of cats.

written by

LizIsHere on April 26, 2010 from Paihia, New Zealand

from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010

Send a Compliment

comment on this...