Im thinking this one's going to be an extra long blog tonight...

Weve had a brilliant past couple of days! Very much feeling the Paihia love now (however we have to leave tomorrow morning).

So yesterday we borrowed the bikes from the hostel and set out on... well we werent 100% sure where we were heading but we set off anyway towards the Treaty Grounds.Anna had an absolutely massive bike - we got "nice penny farthing!"shouted at us on the street at one point. An example of a friend we've made here :). Mel decided to pick the tinyest bike possible whereas I found it difficult yet again to find a helmet for my oddly small head. Here you can get fined for not wearing helmets so we geared up looking supercool! After cycling along a familiar route towards the supermarket, we headed off in a slightly different direction following signs for the treaty grounds.

When we got there we were a little confused as to why it was on a must-see list but didnt really mind as we were quite enjoying the cycle! Checking that off the list we started making our towards Haruru Falls - sounded like a nice thing to do. However in the first leg of our trip mels chain fell off her bike and the road looked like a long upward struggle. Annas family bike trips helped her to fix mels bike and we decided to cycle along the coast instead.

During a photo op on a bridge my camera got dropped and unfortunately landed on the lens. The mechanism is now jammed and it wont close or focus or take photos. Its broken........ :( We have 2 more cameras between us so its not a big problem im just a little upset because i did love my little camera!

The day got a bit better when we stumbled across the real treaty grounds! That wasnt actually the good bit though - you have to pay to see the treaty ground. Instead we chained up our bikes and opted for a walk - a free trail to Haruru Falls! It was a beautiful 5km walk through a kiwi nature reserve (basically just bush) and there was a bonus mangrove walk in it too. Of course we were all counting down the miles but it was actually a really really great thing to do and when we got to the falls at the end it was a pretty good feeling! We could go right up close to it and got some lovely pictures with a friendly old cypriot man.

Deciding that walking back was probably going to kill us off (we'd run out of water and hadnt had lunch) we found a backpackers hostel and looked up a number for a taxi. Luckily the manager was there and after a bit of a chat offered to take us back to the Treaty house for a really cheap price! She was so lovely and took us the scenic route back.

We picked up our bikes and headed back to the hostel making stops at the supermarket to load up my backpack SUPERCOOL LOOK FOR ME MAY I ADD - I had ridiculous amounts strapped to my back, a helmet and a bike. We stopped at the pier to book our tour for the next day also.

At the hostel we had some hummus and pitta bread as we were starving and mel and I watched a film while anna took took her nana nap... as per usual!

However I cant quite talk as when mel and i went back to wake up anna I decided to lie down for a bit too. That was at about 6 in the evening.... I next woke up at midnight yet again fully clothed and realised we did it again! Mel said she hadnt wanted to wake anna and I up so we'd basically slept another evening away! Never mind...... Haha. Tonight were going out for dinner so its all good!

However I only have 10 mins left of internet so I shall have to write about the fantastic day we had today another time... Adios!

Oh and thanks for all the lovely messages guys keep it up! xxxxxxx Love from all of us!