Long flight. Julie picked us up at the airport and we stopped in Warkworth at a tea room for breakfast, then drove up to Whangarei and headed straight east to take in the Whangarei Headlands-- Ocean Beach and Smugglers Cove. We ate lunch at an Indian place named Shiraz in Whangarei, then drove up to Paihia where we're spending two nights. We walked around town, got an ice cream, and took the passenger ferry over to Russell. We walked around a bit but the town was pretty dead. In order to have a drink on the second-floor porch of a bar, we had to join the Swordfish Club and then drank a beer (Julie had white wine) in the scorching sun.
Back in Paihia we ate pizza at the absolute slowest place ever, which got every single table's order mixed up at least once. It was quite a scene. Now we're at the hostel relaxing for an early bedtime-- fantastic since it's Boxing Day (Dec 26th) and Erik & I haven't slept since the night of Dec 23rd.