The hike started with a ferry boat ride across the bay

You know you're hiking in New Zealand when...

Giant Ferns...

Well tended trails...

A boardwalk over the swampy bits...

And after a six mile hike, the reward....!

Finally we had some sun today. We suspended all boat work and went for a walk. Not just any walk. A 6 miler. We took the ferry boat from Opua to Okiato (across the bay a ways). We asked the ferry pilot how far to Russell, which is the little town on that side of the bay. His eyes got a little big and he said; “Oh mate, that’s about 9 kilometers!”. We said that was OK, we were out for a good walk.

He gave us a little map that made all the difference. It showed the trail system and we had a delightful walk (trek) across country. The path went through trees, hills and the most memorable parts were on a walkway built over the swampy land across the edges of some of the bays along the way. We were literally walking across the mangroves and saw all the wildlife of the area. At one point Ann even saw a Kiwi bird.

We didn’t get into Russell until about 5 PM, so we stopped at a cute little spot for pizza and beer before continuing the journey. Once suitably fortified, we went looking for the ferry from Russell to Pahia. Found it and after a short wait crossed another bay over to Pahia where we called a country taxi for the ride back to Opua. It’s about another 2 hour walk and we were running out of both light and strength. Having been on the boat so long, the 6 mile walk was about all we had in us for the day (full disclosure: actually Ann went for a morning walk with one of her friends and they were gone about an hour so I’m guessing they put in a couple more miles for the day) so the taxi looked pretty good!

A fun day. We’ll leave this nice area on Monday, weather permitting, for Whangerie. The Black Dogs have already taken our car there, so it will be waiting for us there.