NORTHLAND: BAY OF ISLANDS

We arrived on a miserable, cold and wet winter's afternoon, chosing to stay at the Panorama Resort because it also provided a restaurant and I really didn't feel like getting the barbeque out and cooking in the rain.

We checked in at their office, only to be told that the restaurant was closed, althougth the chef lived locally, and would be happy to come in and cook for us. We checked the menu, which was just very basic grilled food, and decided that maybe we should cook for ourselves anyway.

The rain had eased off by the time we got ourselves parked by the water, so we set up the barbeque, had dinner and settled in for the night. 

The Haruru Falls are quite spectacular, and well worth going for a walk around them on a fine day. When we first arrived, the water was still sparkling white, even though the river itself was showing signs of mud being washed in from the rain. With the rain continuing quite heavily overnight, in the morning we were greeting with the falls thundering away and transformed into a muddy brown.

We've visited the falls during summer, when the water is sparkling blue - the pictures in the slideshow are not the best advertisement  for this iconic attraction. If you're planning to visit, spring or autumn would be a much better time to do so.

The resort is well set up with a large swimming pool and canoes that you can hire and go paddling up to the falls and down the river.

One absurdity was the sign in their showers demanding that visitors limit their shower to 2 minutes. However, the showers were not metered, and the water pressure was so high that it was almost uncomfortable. If they were really concerned about saving water, they should just fit a pressure regulator and reduce the flow to about half of what it was.

Otherwise, we had a pleasant stay, given the time of the year and the rain.