Day 4 17th 8,53pm
Russel Motel.

We said our goodbyes this morning to the Beachcomber at 10am and headed North continuing along ST1.
The weather was somewhat different to the sunshine and high temps of the previous day and we wound along
mountain roads we drove. We were however able to see the signs for the Honey Factory, and decided to call in- after all it
is, wait for it....our honeymoon!!!!
The building was a cafe/giftshop and as we made a bee-line for it! I asked the guy if there was a charge. He said not and
then we walked to the far end of the shop and saw the hives in the glass cases. There were 6 in total, each hive has one
Queen and each day the queen lays 1500 eggs. We saw how bees collect pollen turn it into honey and deposit it in the comb.
The guy even found the queen for us to see at work laying eggs. He told us about the different plants that the NZ bees work
and then there were samples of different honey to try. We bought this GORGEOUS honeycomb stuff (like the middle of Crunchy
Bars- just no chocolate and it was absolutely delicious and so nice because it was made on site. He also told us about the
difference between runny and smooth honey. His wife was English and so he loved our phrases, a lovely pit stop.

As we continued we drove through drizzle, mist, and hill fog. Untill under my
instruction we took a detour to Goat Island looking for the marine reserve, this enabled us to tour through Wenderholme
Regional park and other forests before cutting back to the ST1 at Wellsford. The roads were interesting and of course the
unique NZ signing system (which is only in some areas) meant we were meandering along untarmacked roads for longer than
anticipated. Nevermind we saw quarries, sheep farms all sorts a goldie made it!!!!.

Our next stop was at the I site (TIC) for some information on Northland and inparticular where Cable Bay was so we could
find Steve and Liz Cook. Then we headed up through Bryderwyn- I was half expecting to see Bedgelert jumping out of the
ugly cottage! and on to Waitangi. This is a large settlement we stopped for a Macdonalds for Mark. We mooched around the
shops before continuing on the ST1.

One of our favourite stops of the day came a little further on at Kawiti Gloworm Caves, just by Waiomio. As we drove past we
saw a sign that said caves and I had to investigate further. We drove up a deserted track past a house and to a car parking
area. Mark thought we were mad but we approached the kiosk and it said that the guide was currently on a tour but would be
back later. We hung on and as promised George a Moari man arrived and introduced himself and we took the tour. Todd joined
us a guy from Ontario Canada who had worked for Apple as an "tele-genius"-his words not mine! Then jacked it in to go on
the trip of a life time. He'd even bought a car which I affectionately named "Victor" the vigure for him!

The cave was 200 mt deep and as we (just the 3 of us) walked through George told us about a Moari woman who was found
living in the cave when it was first found. She had run away from her husband. We saw stalagtites and stalamites and pillar
and column formations, we saw hollow stalagtites which when tapped sound like a drum. He then asked us to look up.
And it was like a beautiful starry sky. Thousdands of Glow worm's dangling from their 'hammocks'lighting up the path.
George told us that their life span is 11 months, 9 of those in worm form then 1 month in lavae before becomming glow worm
flies.

The lights were at 80% strength so although it was very dark we could clearly see the shadows of each other. George told
also showed us "Precilla" a giant eel which lived in the small stream at the bottom of the cave. Her diet would include
dead birds which have flown into the cave, and other insects. George indicated that she was particularly partial to South
African fingers! (A rugby joke as they currently have the World Cup!)

We saw the worms close up and George talked about the importance of family. The cave is in his wifes family and he said
he was the family slave! We watched the worms produce their 'fishing lines' which are used to catch their pray and saw
the worms in lavae stages before thanking George and heading out through the cave and forest.

Todd indicated that there are many places in the North Island where you can see Gloworm Caves, although only a few major
ones are advertised, they are also very pricy to go in some are $50. For me the most memorable thing about our tour with
George was the personality of it. With only 3 of us we could stop ask questions, vocalise our awe and enjoy the tour
to the full. It was a fantastic hour and well worth the $15 each.

After that we said our goodbyes to Todd who was following a similar route to us and then headed back on to Russell our
destination. In planning I'd shunned Paihia a larger base to the Bay of Islands in favour of Russell a tiny coastal hamlet
reached by car ferry with a population of 1100.

It turned out to be a great move as Mark's eyes lit up when he saw the drive on car ferry. $11 later and 5 mins we were
across the bay and discussing why some boats had raymarine and others JRC, before we knew it we were over the hill
in and out of Russell. After we had had our inevitable acccommodation search including the Lonely Planets prefered options
we opted for Motel Russell and Joanne the owner gave us an upgraded room for $100 per night. The room while basic, is great
and will be a super base for the next couple of nights. Our next surprise came when we were settling the bill and the last
record in the guest book came from Julia McKenzie the lady who'd played the organ at our wedding!!!!

We then went to the strand in Russell to look for something to eat. Mark went for you guessed it Sausage and Chips and I
opted for a slightly more exotic Hawian Pizza. As I walked out the Pizzaria a kiwi voice shouted "Isles of Scilly"
I've been there! It turned out we'd both worked at St. Martins Hotel at the same time, although he'd lasted more than a
week!
I couldn't blinkin believe it! All these scilly surprises So he asked us to sign his wall with a graffiti tag.
Which would have been great if I could spell- under pressure I missed out the 'V' in forever- his first dislexic tagger!!!!!
Oh blinkin eck sophs!!!!!

We sat and ate our meal looking out over the jetty in a chilly breeze contemplating dolphin watching tomorrow, especially
seeing the new 4 day old calf in the pod which Joanne had told us about. Hustling at our feet were small brightly coloured
gulls more inquisative than agressive just after a bit of pizza crust. We exchanged conversation with the Supermarket staff
as they shut up shop and I thought about the sign "129km to romantic Russell" that we had passed so long ago. I decided
that this was such a great place, and so much better than the 'mini Auckland' that Joanne discribed Paihia as.

We headed back to Motel Russell happy and full.

Tuesday 18th