A Week in the Bay of Islands
This was the week that I was working, so we were looking for a place we could stay put but that would give Jim plenty to entertain himself with. Scuba diving was the perfect idea — and we looked into going to either Fiji or Bali, but in the end decided that it would be just as fun to stay in New Zealand and head to the lands north of Auckland: The Northlands. We found a hotel right in Paihia (Breakwater Hotel), nothing fancy, but good enough for our needs. We got to the airport early and got to skip the lines because of Jim’s status and then went to the Star Alliance Lounge. It was my time in an airport lounge and I was shocked by the delicious (free!) spread and comfortable surroundings. I felt a little uncomfortable about the whole thing, like a real imposter, but I quickly grew accustomed to it, and started looking forward to our future trips! We had tried to rent a car at our usual Hertz but they were sold out, so we took our chances on a very che...
