December 2012 – March 2013
Technically, the town of Russell is on a peninsula, but because of its isolation and the fact that you need to take a ferry to get there, it feels like an island. There are a couple of ways to actually drive to Russell, but because one is a 3-hour loop from Opua and the other has miles of unpaved road, it’s not something you do simply to get to Russell. The ferries–car and passenger–take only five minutes and they run back and forth constantly during the day.
Russell is to the Bay of Islands what Avalon (Catalina) is to Southern California. In fact, it even looks like it! It’s a tourist town, a summer getaway destination, but there are also a good number of people who live there. It’s a little more quaint than Avalon, less energetic and more low-key, but it’s pretty in the same ways Avalon is. We very much enjoyed our visits there. -Cyndi (Click to enlarge and scroll through photos.)
