The Purple Penguin

Well, today we are in Paihia getting ready to dive the Rainbow Warrior tomorrow. Hopefully go better than our Poor Knights dives.

To answer some questions:
Was Joe surprised? No, not really. With what we had to get for the trip he guessed New Zealand.

Does he like it? Is it good? Etc. Yep.

Any surprises left? Yep, he has no idea where we’ll be spending Christmas, his birthday, or new year’s eve. 🙂

Did we get photos of the baby penguins? Yep. Not very good, but we got a photo.

Have we seen penguins other than in aquariums? Yes. Little blue penguins on every boat trip. Cute.

Today we have seen loads – Drove from Tutukaka to Paihia today in the rain. It has rained off and on from drizzle to downpours all day. Bleugh. But we’ve had such lovely weather I guess we can’t complain too much.

On the way we stopped at a little place called Kawiti Glow-worm Caves. Family run and you get to walk through the cave then out through the forest. Pretty nifty and glow worms look good – like green stars. We also saw eels in the creek that runs through the cave. The guide tells you about her family, the cave, the history, it’s pretty nifty.

Reached Paihia and couldn’t quite check in so we walked around the town, sorted out the diving for tomorrow, got lunch, that sort of thing. Then sorted out our room. Another nice place. Then we headed out to drive to the Rainbow Warrior memorial. What you don’t get told is that the memorial is down a gravel road with no signposts and then you have to climb to get to it. It’s way up on the hill which is great for the views. And the rain held off until we were back in the car! So we climbed to that and had a look at where we’ll be diving tomorrow.

On the way back to Paihia we stopped at the Haruru falls which are quite pretty. It’s a kiwi reserve as well, but we weren’t lucky enough to see a kiwi.

I have uploaded some photos (only about 5) to flickr with the tag ‘Joe Kathleen trip NZ’. Or you can try this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12819735@N00/sets/1514111/
Not sure that will work but give it a go!

Right off to dinner and various stuff before up far too early to dive the Rainbow Warrior!