(December 6, 2012 – March 5, 2013)
The closet town to Opua is Paihia, just five minutes away by car or five thousand minutes away on foot (OK probably 90 minutes on foot but it seemed like a long hike). It’s a pretty little waterfront town, largely geared towards tourists although it’s home for a good number of local residents and remains vibrant even in the off-season. It’s just extra vibrant in the summer, and extra-extra vibrant when the cruise ships come in (and that’s when we try to stay out).
Paihia has shops and restaurants for everyone, small hotels and souvenir shops for the tourists, a grocery store, post office, doctors/dentist, etc. for the locals, and a wharf for the small passenger ferries and tour boats. (The bigger car ferries and tour boats operate from the wharf at Opua.) It is definitely the main tourist town for the Bay of Islands and where people stay when they come to visit the Bay of Islands.
We liked Paihia but spent most of our “town time” in the larger Kerikeri further north. Still, it’s a very pretty town to walk around in, and it did have a couple of things Kerikeri didn’t have. One of those was a good place for fish and chips; the other was our beloved Movenpick for ice cream (which will be one of the subjects of an upcoming blog). -Cyndi
