My mistake - it's not a seaside town, but it's a riverside town that's close to the sea.

Anyway, today was a relaxing day, with us deciding not to go to the Bay of Islands and instead just chill out around here. Turned out to be a reasonably good idea, seeing as how it's been raining most of the day. We spent the morning in town, looking at a couple of sights and having lunch close to the marina. We went to a clock museum, which was quite fascinating. There were a few other things we could have done here, but because of the rain, we came back to the backpackers instead, and watched a couple of movies on the laptop for the afternoon. Then we went shopping, and got lost a few times before finally making it back here!

After dinner we're going to go out for drinks at an Irish pub and celebrate St Patrick's Day (which is today). We'll have a few drinks, then come back home.

Tomorrow we're heading off early to Auckland. I'm going to have to buy a map of Auckland, so that I hopefully choose the right exits off the motorway and into the city to where we're staying. Wish me luck!

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7:32pm

Almost about to go out to drinks. I've invited a couple of blonde girls - one from Sweden, the other from Denmark - I think they'll be joining us, but I'm not exactly sure yet.

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11pm

Got back from drinks. What an interesting time! Halfway through the evening there was what seemed to be a Scottish bagpipes band coming up the street, bagpipes blazing. We thought there was going to be some kind of intercultural or clan war, between the Irish celebrating St Patrick's Day and the Scottish newcomers. Cameras were out, people were wondering. It was cool! But they were warmly welcomed; I'm not sure if they were Scottish or Irish, but they stayed for a while and played and drank, and then wandered off playing their pipes. It was a local band out for the night - bagpipers, drummers, etc etc. There was an Irish lady with us, and she wasn't sure if they were Irish or Scottish, but it didn't really matter...

Speaking of ladies with us, there were the two girls I invited, plus another one of their friends from Finland. I've got photos to prove I was out with 4 beautiful women!!

Ok, off to bed now. I'll try and upload this to the journal in the morning. Because of the lack of time available, or facilities, I'll just upload the photos at the end of it all, when I get back to Wellington - or if I get some decent time before then.