At 8.30ish we left the Scenic Hotel in the spectacular Bay of Islands and made our way back to Auckland. Breakfast on the go was fruit, juice and some cookies I grabbed in reception when checking out.

We stopped at Whangarei Falls and did a cute circular walk. These falls are definitely impressive.

We also had a 10 min stop at a lookout point and found the most amazing beach ‘Uretiti’ definitely worth a longer stop if anyone’s passing here.

We eventually arrived back in Auckland and checked straight in back at the Adina Apartments after our 510km (317 miles) round trip. Observation, cows at present are outnumbering sheep by a guess of 30 to 1, perhaps most of the sheep are all down south.

By 2 pm we were in The Shakespeare – not just for the beer but a cultural experience as well. Established in 1898 and NZ’S oldest Micro Brewery and as quoted by Shakespeare himself ‘I would give all my fame for a pot of ale’. After 2 pints for him, 2 halves for me and 2 games of pool we left. Being pros at this now, we topped up our AT Hop cards (which we got a few days ago) and tapped on the ferry to go across to Devonport.

The plan, a 4 mile walk up to Mount Victoria (an extinct volcano) and then onto the viewpoint at North Head, lovely walk, thank God it was overcast. Did manage to grab our first ice creams of the trip though!

Around 6 pm we returned to Auckland and found a lovely roof top diner ‘Saint Alice’ overlooking the harbour front and had pizza and pasta whilst watching the sun go down.