I went on a girls’ weekend getaway to the Bay of Islands with a three energetic, charismatic, and beautiful ladies. My travel buddies for the girls’ trip were Gift, Rebecca, Ella and Claudine. We stayed in Kerikeri but all our activities were in Paihia.
Kerikeri is a town in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. It’s famous for many things, including fascinating historical sites and lifestyles. This tourist destination is one of many in Far North of Auckland, 80 km from Whangarei, and 25 min from Paihia.
Kerikeri is also home to New Zealand’s oldest standing European building, known as Kerikeri Mission Station of Kemp House. It was built by a Reverend called John Butler in 1821. The drive to Kerikeri is bordered by orchards with some selling seasonal fruits and real fruit ice cream.
At Kerikeri, you’ll also find the Stone store that dates back to 1832 and is NZ’s oldest stone building. During my second trip to Cape Reinga in December 2019, we freedom camped in Kerikeri, explored the stone house and Kerikeri town centre. That trip will also be my second experience camping in a car in NZ. I’ll talk about my experience camping in a car in a blog post soon.
Auckland to Cape Reinga: Things to See and Do
What to expect when freedom camping in New Zealand.
My first Auckland to Cape Reinga road trip
My second Auckland to Cape Reinga road trip
We agreed that this girls’ trip will be relaxed and boujee so, we, intentionally, didn’t have the usual adventurous activities mapped out.
Our accommodation was a beautiful Airbnb in Kerikeri; private, spacious, fully equipped, and with beautiful scenery.
I flew into Auckland a day before the trip to give myself enough time to do grocery shopping for my Nigerian food ingredients and some clothes to send back home. It had been quite a while since I used the train or any means of public transportation for that matter so, you can guess how I commuted in Auckland.
Of course!! I used public transportation. I was looking forward to taking the train for a long time so it was satisfying when I did take the train, Click here to see what a train ride in Auckland looks like.
We left Auckland on the evening of April Fool’s Day.
At the start of our journey, it seemed that we would have many issues because weird signs were showing in the car we travelled in. PS: I’m so proud of how I conducted myself in that scenario. It should have been avoided had she checked earlier and sorted everything before the trip. (Sorry, girl, but that is how I felt).
Fortunately, we sorted out the critical issue and set out to Kerikeri. On arrival, we turned into our neighbour’s house. The driveway reminded me of the first trip to Ghana, lol. I dey fear sha. Luckily, our entrance didn’t startle anyone so we “quietly” drove out and into our weekend home.
The next day, belly full and energy level up, we set out to Paihia to find some adventure. And find them, we did with a kayak hire from Bay Beach Hire on Paihia beach. But for the love of everything good, I can’t remember the hire cost.
The adventure was a 4-hour round trip by kayak beginning at Paihia beach and ending at Omata Estate Vineyard in Russell with a stop over at Motu maire historic reserve. It was my first time going on a kayak without a guide and honestly, fear catch me no be lie but I still do am.
Arriving in Russell, we secured our kayaks at the shore, and walked from the shore to Omata Estate. All but me were dressed in bikini; I wore a bodysuit with bum short. Now imagine sitting at a winery and seeing four melanin popping ladies appear from the forest in bikini. You’re right!!! Imagine how much we stood out. Thankfully, we live in New Zealand and also cared less.
Rebecca was unofficially in charge of placing the order. She ordered the tasting flight wine tasting option which was a sample of 4 Omata Estate wines with a shared cheese platter. Uwem do ke tinapa. WATCH THE VIDEO!!!
The following day will be when we were to head back to Auckland and since we had the whole day to ourselves, we decided to go to Paihia first. The plan was to do a boat cruise before the long drive to Akl.
However, we left the house late. no one was particularly motivated to do the boat cruise. Moreover, one of the girls had a flight to catch that evening, so we needed to head back. As a result, the plans changed from “let’s do a boat cruise, have lunch then go” to “let’s have lunch then go“.
On our way to grab lunch, Ella had to make a brief stop at the ladies. We were jamming to afrobeats while waiting for Ella to be back from the toilet hunt. My darling blog readers and subscribers, that is how your gyals put on a street dance show. Should we have dropped a cap, we would have made hundreds of dollars. Lol.
I made a vlog of my girls’ weekend away to Kerikeri, and you can watch it here. Don’t forget to subscribe.
Important notice: I tested positive for COVID-19 after this trip. Read about my COVID Isolation experience here (coming soon).
