We have our coffee and porridge to wake up before we organise ourselves to check out

The weather’s a little rubbish today and even suggests risk of thunderstorms

We drive to McDonald’s to get our second breakfast ????

Then, we go to PAK’n’SAVE to pick up some cold and flu medicine and other bits for our drive today – poor Dave is a bit under the weather ????

We get a little top up of fuel and then head out

After driving about an hour, we have a brief stop in Kaeo at Madhatters Café for another coffee each

Our first activity for the day is nearby here: Rainbow Falls (Waianiwaniwa)

This site was once a hydroelectric station which used the water from the Kerikeri River to initially power 17 customers back in 1930

We do a loop walk around the waterfall (see the featured image)

There’s something on Google Maps called Fairy Pools nearby so we head over to it; it doesn’t turn out to be very much so carry on our route

We shortly arrive in Paihia where we park up and check into Haka House Bay of Islands – it’s actually a hostel but does have double rooms, for couples like us

After dropping our bags off, we wander around the area to explore the wharf and beach before popping into Tipsy Oyster, a restaurant and bar, with bad weather hitting

We have a couple drinks here with some local love music before making our way to Four Square to get some supplies for dinner

Butter chicken with feta & garlic bread as well as some sauvingnon blanc – we wouldn’t recommend the Pam’s butter chicken jar sauce ???? but everything else was quite nice

There’s a couple of people staying in the hostel who are travelling around, just like we are, and we share some stories of our respective trips and recommendations before heading to bed