It was love at first sight for both Graham and myself when we landed in Sydney. As far as cities go it is definatly the most stunning I have ever seen. Barry met us at the airport and drove us to Double Bay so we could watch the yachts race out of the city to Tasmania for the annual Sydney to Hobart race. After that we drove round the suburbs, admiring some uber swanky pads before landing on Bondi Beach. We had a walk along the beach, which was even prettier than it looks in the pictures you see back home, [View Full Entry]

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So we have not updated our blog for the past few days. We left the Bay of Islands to mixed weather, so we decided to just eat up the journey, as we would be charged extra for the van if it was late!! We stopped briefly at a gorgeous beach, only for Graham to almost to lose his trainer in some sinking sand. We arrived back at R & N's and quickly empted the van, before scooting up the road with just minutes to spare at the rental firm. On christmas eve, we actually did our first of christmas shopping in [View Full Entry]

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We had a really lazy morning in the sun, just chilling and enjoying the campsite which is right beside the waitangi river, we have been feeding the ducks here and this morning we peeled back our curtains to find that they were all waiting outside for their brekkie! The sun was shining, and as we had 4 hours to kill before our fishing trip we decided to check out the local skydiving place. We arrived at the office which was at the end of an old dusty track to find not a sole in sight, just the office which was a [View Full Entry]

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So lets start this blog traditionally, with a summary of the weather, pishing it down again, but we have decided just to get on with it, and continue as if the sun was shining, those pac a macs are getting a good airing! Today we went on a dolphin discovery tour of the Bay of Islands, with the hope of firstly finding them and then swimming with them. Well just as Graham and I were getting doubts if it was all just a big con to skin tourists of their dollars, we came across a pod of 15. Unfortunately, they had [View Full Entry]

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Today we headed to the park that features on the Sky tv series Lionman....a park with 43 big cats...some wild, some hand reared....black leopards, cheetahs, lions, pumas, bengaly tigers, white tigers, white lions and an old rescued retired gibbon. For those of you that watch the show we also saw the most famous of the residents...Zion...he was used to model Aslan from the lion the witch and the wardrobe.... also features in the rugby lions tour commercials ....a true superstar. The park is a really special place and you do not get to just walk around it yourself, you have to [View Full Entry]

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Yup we have been and gone and black water rafted....given that there was so much rain again last night, we decided to seek our entertainment 85ft underground.....and because there was so much rain it was to our benefit, as the underground rapids were wild....... We were strussed up in rather fetching wetsuits, that were wet from the previous trippers, i just hope that mine had not been wee'd in by the previous person wearing it. We then were given helmets with torches, and a big rubber ring, before being given some brief instructions on how to paddle through the rapids. The [View Full Entry]

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When we arrived at Camp last night, we were delighted when the receptionist said that New Plymouth had been blessed with great weather over the last two months....well guess what, as per, we woke to grey skies, closely followed by the heavens opening and unleashing one heavy bout of wind and rain. You know in Edinburgh, during the festival when you all feel sorry for the tourists that visit and have to sit through the tattoo with poncho's on - well thats us today.......big thank you to Frances and Family for our early Christmas pressie of pac a macs, much used, [View Full Entry]

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After waking up to another dull day, we were not that bothered as we had a day planned in the National Museum called Te Papa which comes highly recommended by all that have visited.. Think Chamber street x 5 for size, we were sucked in by the first level which was a full explanation of how the tectonic plates all work and why nz is such a dangerous place to stay. NZ is basically riding on the seam of the australasia and pacific plate with them grinding againts one another all the time......having spent a few days in Rotorua and Taupo, [View Full Entry]

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We woke this morning to more blinding sunshine, and amazingly blue sky's, the clouds looked as if they had been painted on as they were so amazing!!! We got on the road to Wellington, as its taken us almost 5 hours to get here, granted we have taken our time, but it was the longest drive yet. Its really easy to navigate round NZ, everything is well signposted, the only challenge is the mountain passes which are really really curvey at times. The Mountains are really stunning here, covered in really dense trees that looked like tall broccoli at times! Most [View Full Entry]

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After a chilled out afternoon in Taupo by the pool we had a fairly early night before waking up to heavy rain so we decided not to take the $100 Hukka Jet and headed straight to Napier. Cat drove the whole of this leg so this put the 'Swoop' in the shade as far as fear factor went! Only joking Sue (Cat's mum), no need to worry she handled the van well!! Scenery was magic, hard to explain the shape of the hills here but as we near Hobbitt territory that will give you an idea. As the land started to [View Full Entry]

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