Before we leave Kerikeri, we visit the Stone Store, New Zealand’s oldest stone building. We’d visited 10 years ago so it was interesting to revisit.

We take the car ferry over to Russell. Famously or infamously once referred to as the hell hole of the South Pacific. It was once a centre of the whaling industry in the 1800s and was a lawless place with many brothels and bars. It was also the capital of New Zealand at one point in time. We’d stayed here on our original trip in 2014 and so we are really excited to be back in one of our favourite places. We are staying at a local campsite which means we can walk down into town, which we do after dinner for a beer, sitting on the waterfront watching the sun go down. Our first stop for coffee was Hell Hole Russell https://www.facebook.com/hellholerussell/ – excellent flat whites and a great way to start the day before wandering around. We had been gifted a restaurant voucher by my lovely friends at work and so we have a belated anniversary celebration dinner at the Duke of Marlborough Hotel https://www.theduke.co.nz/ – holders of the first formal liquor licence in New Zealand issued in 1840. Prior to this it was set up as a grog shop in 1827. We had a fab dinner & an amazing bottle of wine sitting on the veranda watching the sunset. Heaven!