Day 311: A Casual Day in Bay of Islands — Exploring Russell
Loved waking up in this cool house, especially because it comes with one of those pre-stocked breakfast “hampers.” We rustled up bacon, eggs, yogurt, etc. with a fabulous view.
Kids were a bit slow to get up this morning because of the two-hour time difference from Sydney. We’re now 16 hours ahead of New York!
School was pleasant and cozy — it rained outside and I built a fire in the living room.
By noon we were heading to town to explore Russell Township, a small picturesque seaside town whose history includes “a mixture of deserting seamen, runaway convicts, and grog sellers, as well as settlers and traders.” That combo earned it a reputation as a “lawless and rowdy port and the unflattering nickname “Hell Hole of the Pacific”. “ Ha!
We ate lunch at the Duke of Marlborough, with a British server named James. Lunch was good but took a while — so we amused ourselves with games like “Africa A to Z” with everyone coming up with a word about our Africa trip that started with every letter of the alphabet (eg, S is for sundowner, E is for elephant, O is for Oyster Box, etc.)
Fun that Lobsy has been along for enough of the trip to play along.
The Duke of Marlborough is a 100+ year old hotel and pub btw with very funky old decor.
After lunch we ventured out into the drizzle to get some exercise. We hiked up to the top of the Flagstaff HIll — not a flat walk. Took about 20 minutes, and there was much griping from our small people.
It was worth it for these views.
James and Willa got into a scuffle that ended with him biting her, so here he is serving his time out.
We wandered around some more, went to the grocery store for dinner stuff.
We also picked up a “famous” hot chocolate from a place in town. It was delicious, but…luke warm. Lobsy had a lot to say on the matter.
Back home we piled into our two golf carts and let the kids steer up and down the vineyard hills. They had a blast.
Back at home we had wine, cheese and board games on the deck in the beautiful sunlight. Teddy dozed on a lounger.
The kids also swam and jumped in the jacuzzi — it’s about 55 degrees out and that pool isn’t heated. I was impressed!
We got them to bed and cooked lamb steaks (never heard of those before but they were good), potatoes and carrots. Chocolates from the cold hot chocolate place for dessert.
