Page 9 of Ferdi and Talita Travel Blog Posts


Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland » North Shore October 4th 2009

From the lack of pictures in this issue of our blog it should be apparent to the casual observer that not much happened in the last few days. We hope you still enjoy hearing from us even though pulling teeth might be more entertaining. Anyway, lets get on with it… Happy birthday to our sister Lindy and our friend Megan! Hope you had a fantastic day and may God bless you with many joyful years to come. Thursday, October 1st Today we said a sad farewell to our van, The Three Sisters. We spent 65 days together, covered 7510 trouble free kilometers, and shared many many adventures. We'll miss the old girl, but on the upside, Escape was very kind and gave us a further discount! Once all the formalities were done we walked to the ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland September 30th 2009

Monday, September 28th We woke to a gray morning poring with rain. For breakfast we made banana pancakes, then piled into the 7-seater Smit mobile and drove into town to visit the iSite. We needed to get info on what to do in the area when the weather's bad. We started of with a Cheese Factory. The directions were bad so we ended up driving up and down trying to find it. Finally Mel found a map that showed the location of the factory, but when we arrived we found the shop unattended. We took a peak through the windows but couldn't tour the factory. Nicol finally got the attention of the proprietors and we bought some cheese. On the way out to the car, Keira spotted a pen with a bunch of calves that needed ... read more
Stone sculpture
Mission Station
Kemp House 1822

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands » Paihia September 30th 2009

Friday, September 25th Our day started out with us wondering what vehicle to buy. We're leaning towards a van, but also looked at a few 4x4's and caravans. Mel reminded us that we were getting ahead of ourselves; we'd need visas if we wanted to stay another three months. We didn't think we'd need to rush, but when Talita phoned immigration they said they'd need 30 days to process our application. Our current visas expire in 27 days! So, with no time too lose we downloaded the forms, scanned through it to see what we needed to submit, then drove to the nearest print-shop to have it all printed out. We had just over an hour to get to the immigration office in the city, fill out the forms and submit our application. We just made ... read more
Grts grts grts
Photogenic Keira
A great spot for free camping

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland September 24th 2009

Tuesday, September 22nd After a close encounter of the parrot kind we set off for Taupo. The WoF (Warranty of Fitness) on our van was about to expire, making the van un-roadworthy, so Escape asked us to have it assessed before they got fined. Once in Taupo we found a place that could do the test, but the van failed because of a cracked tail-light casing (it was like that when we got it, promise!) and they also required a TSL (Transit Service License) number which Escape couldn't give us right away. Ferdi got angry so Talita took over. A few phone calls later (and some friendly local help) we got a new tail-light from Toyota (Ouch!!! Those genuine parts are worth their weight in gold. Luckily it wasn't for our account!). In the meantime Escape ... read more
Sweet sweet honey
Almost turqoise water
Powerful stream

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Turangi September 21st 2009

Saturday, September 19th We woke to a rainy morning. Most places we went in NZ we brought sunshine, but the Tongariro National Park seems immune to our charms. It didn't look like there'd be any snowboarding in our near future. That being said, our first stop for the day was the snowboard shops around Ohakune. Being the end of the season we were hoping to get some specials. There were a few sales and Talita easily found comfy boots. Ferdi didn't have the same luck. None of the boots fitted him properly. It’s an expensive sport and we want to do more research so we decided to wait before we buy our own gear. Our next order of business was to find a romantic place to spend our anniversary. We went to look at two places. ... read more
Inside our cozy cabin
View from The River Lodge
Daisy

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Tongariro National Park September 17th 2009

Tuesday, September 15th Today our lives changed forever. We set off from Westport, heading for Karamea, 100km north. Karamea isn't on a road that leads anywhere. Our sole reason for going up there was to meet with Bruce Smith, the guy who teaches people to build log houses during a six day course. While in Fox Glacier Talita had phoned him to see when we could meet up. He wasn't in Karamea at the time which was lucky for us. There's no Vodafone reception in Karamea so he's almost always out of contact. We were very very lucky to get hold of him. The drive had a bit of everything in it; straight sections next to the coast and winding mountain passes. We arrived at lunch time and made our way to where he stays. He's ... read more
Ted teaching us his Whitebaiting tricks
Sheep coming to say hello
Peachtree next to the Maitai River

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Westport September 14th 2009

Saturday, September 12th It rained heavily through the night, but just before 7am, when we peaked out our window, we saw patched of blue between the rain clouds. With nothing to do all day but relax, we crawled back into bed and snoozed some more. Once breakfast and some admin were done it was almost lunch time. It started raining heavily once more, but just as quickly the sun was out again, so after lunch we read and baked in the sun like a couple of lizards. Later we watched a movie and after dinner we watched a few doccies. All in all, a very relaxing day. Today's highlights: 1. Relaxing all day long. Impressions of NZ: The weather on this part of the island changes a lot, but mostly it seems to rain. Sunday, September ... read more
Single file following Kurt
Top of Fox Glacier
Boots and crampons

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Fox Glacier September 11th 2009

Wednesday, September 9th We survived another night in the wild. By the time we woke the Sandflies were out in full force again. The last time we went shopping we again forgot to get repellent, so we stayed in the van as much as possible and tried to keep the little buggers outside. After breakfast we left the Queenstown area, heading for Wanaka, a small town north of Queenstown. Graham and Rose had told us about it and we wanted to go check it out. Apparently it's like Queenstown but much less commercial. En-route we detoured to Cordrona ski field. At the gate we picked up three girl snowboarders heading to the top. They told us how much the shuttle cost and we could not believe how expensive it is. It's cheaper to rent a car ... read more
Just look at that big playground!
Slipping and sliding down
Back country

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Queenstown September 9th 2009

Sunday, September 6th We didn't die of cold during the night so we woke to a brisk morning by the lake. It was overcast plus the sun was still hiding behind the mountain range. After breakfast we drove in the direction of Milford Sound, hoping to find the road had been opened. We weren't too disappointed to find it still closed because the weather didn't look too promising. We’ll definitely come back soon. We found a nearby walking trail and walked in the direction of Lake Marian next to the Hollyford River, the most beautiful river we've ever seen! In places the water was ice blue. It’s so beautiful here. We can't wait to hike all over this area one day. After the hike we drove back in the direction of Te Anau. We stopped at ... read more
Hanging Bridge across the Hollyford River
Moss covered tree
Hanging by the Hollyford River

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Te Anau September 6th 2009

Thursday, September 3rd After breakfast we said goodbye to Graham and Rose. In a few short days they've become our New Zealand parents. With wisdom, compassion and a kind, unassuming approach, they've given us a glimpse of a fulfilling life in the service of God and man. Their home has a warm, open vibe and you can't help but feel comfortable there. Thank you for all the TLC! We absolutely loved staying with you! When we left Balclutha we headed for Nugget Point, a beautiful lookout point with rocks sticking out of the ocean like nuggets. To reach the lookout point we had to hike the last bit. It was raining lightly so we donned our rain gear and set off. Less than 50m from our van it suddenly started raining huge slushy drops. We were ... read more
Cool frog signs
Talita just got told by a robot how to do her "business"
As far south as we've ever gone




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