Bay of islands

On the other side of the Bay of Islands opposite Paihia lies Russel. The whaling town was once notorious as the hellhole of the Pacific: whores, alcohol, gambling and murder. Today it is exactly the opposite: old Victorian wooden villas, renovated to the highest standard, quiet, safe, clean. A small ferry takes us across the Bay of Islands on bicycles.

Back at the hostel, there’s still some work to do that I didn’t manage to finish before leaving. A lot of hostels here now have Zenbu routers. As a guest, you usually only get 50MB free per day, which makes working in shops with 5GB of data a bit more difficult. After two days of work and rest, we are ready for the Northland.