Bay of Islands

We had a lovely 3 -day trip - lots of historic sites and houses, incuding Ruakepapeka, Waimate North, and Pompallier House, another at Butler Point and a whaling museum there, plus Pete's Transport and Colonial museum near Kerikeri, a chocolate factory where I bought gifts for March birthdays. Dieter kindly bought me a box too. It was wonderful to be back in Paihia, Russell, and Kerikeri - the town changed beyond recognition since our last visit, some12 years ago. Nice to go to the Stone Store, which is beautifully restored and stocked with typical things of the time, as well as new things, all tastefully arranged and available for purchase such as old fabrics suitable for patchwork. Kemp House with its beautiful garden was interesting as one of the earliest houses of the area. There is a bypass going in which will take heavy traffic which has a deletarious effect on the house and store with its vibrating noise, away from that area and bridge over the inlet . Everywhere we had conducted tours of the historic places trust houses with very knowledgable and enthusiastic people. We went to a kaleidoscope workshop and were able to look through different kaleidoscopes with different prisms at things like the big urn of flowers outside and see the most amazing patterns. One of the people bought one and passed it around the bus and if youpointed it out the window you could get a riot of changingpattern especially passing trees and hedges. They didn't come cheap but they were in beautiful kauri surrounds.
All our group were from the Silverdale and Districts Historical Society and older than us. We dined out both nights at the RSA in Paihia - very cheap mini roast dinner or fish meal for $11. There was a long wait but I filled it admirably with a couple of drinks from the bar. The photos are of Kemp House and the store, and the kaleidoscope factory where there was a huge pear tree.