Day 97: Day of exploring

Today we had a free day in Paihia so I decided to go off exploring on my own. I made a little packed lunch in the hostel and headed off to the pier to catch a 10am ferry across to Otehei Island. The boat journey took about 45 mins, as we stopped off at Russell along the way to pick up more passengers.

Once we arrived at the island, there were various walks you could choose to do. I opted for the Paradise Island walk which took around 1 hour. The views that I saw from the island were beyond incredible, beautiful green hills and turquoise blue waters and it was a beautiful sunny day too. After my hike I arrived at Paradise Bay beach which was beautiful and there was not a soul in sight so I had the whole beach to myself! I spent the afternoon sunbathing and having my lunch on this little beach which was so chilled.

I did the hour hike back to the pier and then caught the boat back to Paihia. We spent the rest of the day sunbathing by the pool at the hostel as it was a really nice warm temperature and got talking to some other Kiwi experience passengers who had arrived today and were staying in our room. Had a few drinks in the evening and a few people headed off to the bar next door. Marissa and I opted to go to sleep!