So what to do today?

 November 27th

More rain! One day fine, the next wet, and so it goes on and on. Even the locals are fed up with it, they haven't known anything like it in years. It did put the kibosh on our plans for today. We hoped to go paragliding. Yep, another of those Jameison foolhardy decisions, but the rain stopped that! We had even hoped to catch the passenger ferry from Paihia to Russell, would have saved the drive, and although I have Marilyn's lovely bright yellow umbrella, Ian being stubborn refuses to go under it. It was to Russell, then via the car ferry again. This time buying a return ticket.

 

 Lovely small town, plenty of souvenir shops, an op shop (charity shop) 1 bottle shop and a supermarket. Oh, and a bakery where lunch was purchased, 2 sausage rolls and two small meat pies. Gosh, they were good.

We walked to the wharf and there was the passenger ferry we could have caught if not for the rain. Happy smiley boat according to the flags.

 

A huge wooden carved structure stood at the entrance to the wharf. It symbolises welcome in Moira and was designed and carved by Tony Makiha. The wheku, or carved face at the centre of the 4.5m-high waharoa, represents the many rangatira (chiefs) of Russells past.

Arriving to the wharf by boat he also carved a Maori figure welcome people to the town in a culturally appropriate manner but to also say this is our 'whenua', please respect it.’ The taiaha gives the challenge and the patu he holds behind his back the warning he will defend Kororāreka (Russell) if called on to do so.

Excerpt taken from https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/master-carver-creating-new-welcome-to-kororarekarussell/AIJT3GYVDGS7V5DABWUIOIDPEA/

 To dodge the showers we made for the op shop. We searched for egg cups, we do like our boiled eggs but none was found. I have been improvising by cutting the egg boxes into egg cup shapes. Works fine until they get wet. So for a 1 dollar we got two plastic ones, and we have helped the charity a tiny bit. Whilst browsing I also picked up another pair of shorts, bargain at $6.

Once those yummy pies had been devoured it was time to set off for Paihia again. This time to Haruru Falls, Before catching the ferry back we made a very slight detour to see where New Zealand's First Capital had been.

Not a lot to show as all there is left is a blooming deep well.

These falls have been visited previously back in 2017, and they were nowhere as impressive as this was now. We encountered a problem trying to get into the entrance. Fowl running free, not sure if they were wild, but the blasted things would not off the road? Inching forward, nearly squishing one because it absolutely refused to budge, they finally got the message and cleared off.

Ian thought about using the selfie stick, hmm, where was the selfie stick? Back at the Toy he hunted high and low, t'was nowhere to be seen. Only one deduction, it was left on the coach yesterday/ What I had forgotten to mention, we had to change coaches due to the gear stick breaking. He thinks it was in the back seat pocket, as was his favourite oilskin waterproof cap! Blast. We went back to Fullers booking  desk at Paihia to see if anything had been handed in, nop nothing, so now we have to buy another. But here lies the problem. Ian has checked out all the stores that are liable to sell these sticks and non have them for sale over the counter, its all blasted online orders only. No good to us at all. To say he is really p'd off is an understatement!

Our site tonight is fabulous. It overlooks Haruru Falls. Not a freebie but not expensive either, and we are on power. We need to stay in the area because we are off on the search for Dolphins tomorrow. The weather is set to be fair for a change. Fingers crossed.

 

 

I took this photo on the 20th and kept forgetting to include on the blog. Any ideas why these cows have blue and green coloured bums? Could it be (A) which bull has serviced them (B) off for auction and are graded depending on colour (C) the farmer can tell the milking order. It's probably none of the above, but I would so love to know.

Don't you just love this postbox. Plenty of weird and wonderful about so may include more as I see them.

And wildlife