October 24

We woke up this morning with Santee’z on the brain. We have long since agreed that it is the best cafe in New Zealand, possibly the world. Every single piece of food that they make is the most delicious thing I have ever consumed. This morning we treated ourselves to an orange, date and ginger scone, French toast with banana, bacon and maple, and a cup of chips (fries), because why not? It was absolutely fabulous. The fact that it is gluten-free is astounding. If you ever visit Kerikeri then go to Santee’z. You won’t regret it. The staff know us very well by now and find us extremely entertaining (probably not least because of the amount of money that we have spent there in the past three days). I have recently learned a term that can partially describe the way that we have been traveling around; it is called flashpacking. My understanding is that it means flashy backpacking. We have been eating out and doing expensive adventure activities, but at the end of the day we are still backpackers who sleep in our car and get excited at the prospect of a hot shower.

After breakfast, we decided to head out to Rainbow Falls to see it in the daylight. It was beautiful. We decided that going in the water wasn’t necessary a second time (especially now that we know there are eels).

We also made the decision to head to Paihia because Kerikeri was just too quiet for us. Paihia is a bigger town and has a lot more to offer. We have already decided that we are going to watch the All Blacks play South Africa at 3 am. I have been meaning to watch a rugby match since I arrived and haven’t done it yet! Many bars get special licenses to stay open all night during the World Cup, just so the Kiwis can watch the All Blacks play. Due to our late evening, we are spending most of our day napping, figuring out what we can make with two tomatoes, a bag of avocados, and 4 hard boiled eggs (ah, the glamorous backpacker life).