Raro to Auckland

For our last night in Muri, we returned to the best restaurant that we had found on our first day, Nautilus.  We wanted to try some of the vegetables of the island that we had seen growing such as taro and maniota. This was the 'Island fries' side plate - we had it as a delicious and filling starter with different tastes, and not too fatty for John.

This was the scene from the restaurant at sunset.

Unfortunately, a cloud of mosquitoes decided to join us and so we left as soon as we had finished eating. 

The alarm was set for 0530, but we were awake just before that and John went down to the beach to capture our finest sunrise.  Our transport, the same 9 seater bus arrived at 0600 on the dot and we were away picking up others for the same flight.

At the airport, the wait for check in was just a minute and we had the same refreshing experiences - seen in the entrance hall:

Our plane was waiting on the tarmac and being - this was Our plane  taken from the airside cafe 

And the departure lounge

Would we return to the Cook Islands? A longer trip is already in mind.  There are 15 islands, not all are reachable in practice, but some internal flights exist. We would certainly return to Muri Beach Cottages and hope to see Gwen and Jo-Jo again.

Our flight from Raratonga to Auckland was trouble free; we have been very impressed by Air New Zealand,  the staff as well as the flights and they have the best safety announcement that I have come across - it's based on the Hobbit films and I would defy anyone to ignore it-  even at the second or third time of watching!

During the flight from Rarotonga ot Auckland, we were adopted by a 2 year old called John. He was travelling with his mother in the central isle of the plane, so had nothing to see. He came to sit with us and stare out of the window or play with his cars running them up and down the window, brum, brum will be his new word for today!

At Auckland, we collected our car to take us north to Paihia and the Bay of Islands. 

We stopped at the Whangarei falls on our way. The volunteer rangers were very welcoming, and I was right in detecting his Mancunion accent. 

The falls are lovely, but it's the activities around the falls that kept us there for a while: there is a tall tree next to the water, full of divers or wannabe jumpers. 

Sometimes they jump, so catching them in mid air kept us busy. To the air doesn't make much of a photo, but the splash does when a boy jumps from the top of the tree.

There is a walk around the falls so that you can take photos from various vantage points

Climbing is not limited to trees. 

We continued on our way to Paihia, installed ourselves in a lovely apartment about 10 minutes walk from the town centre and up high and then went down to the town for a very good Indian meal.

 The view from the terrace to "the Bay of Islands.