Writing to come... [View Full Entry]

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Auckland has so much to do through the Summer. There are quiet a few free and cheap things to do. Here are some pics from Summer Series and the Mission Bay Jazz Festival. We also saw Katchafire (for the third time) at the zoo. Good stuff. [View Full Entry]

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The beaches on the West Coast of New Zealand have black sand. It is quite pretty as it has sparkly diamond looking specks in the sand, but it heats up and can burn your feet badly if you don't have "jandels" or thongs as we call them in Oz (but not to be mixed up with the American term for thong!). I love the Summer in New Zealand. Most weekends Erika, Amy and I hit the beaches. This has to be my favourite beach. It does get a little rough here and you really have to be careful. There are lifeguards [View Full Entry]

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Drew aka and I went for a day of fishing and relaxing on Anawhata Beach. This little beach is awesome and hidden away. It is quite close to Piha and not advertised on the road sign, so many people just drive past the turn off without knowing about this little gem. There is quite a long, steep walk down a hill to get there, but well worth it. The land was bought by a Maori lady quite a few years ago and her family are nice enough to let the public use the beach. Her children and neices and nephews are [View Full Entry]

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We visited Karikari Estate, Okahu Winery and Cottle Hill Estate on this little road trip. The only one that didn't do free wine tasting was Karikari Estate and it was by far the nicest, with dining in the courtyard overlooking the vines and mountains and the sea. [View Full Entry]

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Erika and I went for a drive out of camp to visit Mangonui to do some fishing on the wharf. We caught a few baby fish and tried using them as bait, but we were just not having any luck with the bigger fish. After 3 hours we had had enough and the nearby "World Famous Fish and Chip Shop" was calling. We settled for fish and chips and champagne prepared by somebody else instead. After this we went for a wee walk around the historical town and visited some historical sights. Very pretty, small town. Wouldn't want to be stuck [View Full Entry]

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Matai Bay has a DOC campground so it is fairly basic with cold showers and no kitchen facilities, but the bay is just gorgeous. There are tracks to do hikes and lookouts to climb up. I'm not allowed to say what else we did there!! Beautiful place. [View Full Entry]

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This blog is being dedicated to all the wineries in New Zealand that I hope to visit over the remainder of my stay here. I have visited 4 so far, which is a pretty poor effort. So it is now my intention to visit as many as possible over the next year. I will take a picture of the Winery Sign and put the date visited. If the place is any good, I will write a few lines about it. If anybody has any reccommendations please post comments. New Zealand wine is really good and needs some promoting world wide. When [View Full Entry]

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Not a chance in hell that my ass was staying in Auckland for new years. Went to work with my backpack and tent on Friday and finished at 3pm. Erika picked me up in her Volvo convertable and we Thelma and Louised it all the way up to Northern New Zealand. We arrived with 20 minutes of sun left and enough time to put our tents up with the help of Amy and Marty with DB's in hand! The next day was spent swimming and sunbaking and walking along beautiful Taupo Bay! Now don't get this confused with Taupo Lake that [View Full Entry]

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Writing to come... [View Full Entry]

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