Day 4 Russell (Monday 2/18) We drove the back road (Coastal Road) from Wangarei to Russell. Stopped for a picnic and really enjoyed the lovely coastline. We must have gone over 30 one lane bridges. Russell is where the first whites settled. It overlooks the Bay of Islands. Personally I have mixed feeling about Russell. It is beautiful but basically your tourist town. I found the small fishing towns on the drive up much more interesting. We took the main road back to Wangarei but first had to take a Ferry to get to the main road. It was probably a [View Full Entry]

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Day 3-Northland - Wangarei (Sunday 2/17) We decided to go north and explore Northland. Actually made it out of Auckland just like we knew what we were doing. The traffic was pretty bad even though it was Sunday morning. Rush hour traffic must be a real experience. Stopped and spent a few hours at Orewa. It is a beach town and I was surprised that a lot of the stores were open. They were having a farmer’s market and all the fruits and veggies are in season. The fruits and veggies are great NZ because they are all locally grown. New [View Full Entry]

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Day 2-Coromandel Adventures (Sat. 2/16) We headed south of Auckland on #1 and then east to the Coromandel Peninsula with no idea of what we might find. What we found was a 100 miles of some of the most beautiful landscapes we have ever seen. The Coromandel Peninsula is not really pushed in the travel propaganda. I think the Kiwis just decided to keep it to themselves. The drive from Thames to Coromandel up the west coast was just stunningly beautiful. Near Coromandel we ran into a bike rally and the hills were almost straight up. The bikes were having a [View Full Entry]

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Day I Flight and Arrival in Auckland (Friday 2/15) Feb. 13 we flew to LA. Arrived about 4:30 and checked in for the flight to New Zealand. Everything went smooth and we had supper before boarding about 8:30. Both Juanita and I were sure something was going to go wrong. The 12 hour from LA to NZ was really comfortable. They feed you a couple of meals; each seat had a personal screen with a selection of 4 movies and probably 100 different TV programs. We took some sleeping pills and Juanita was actually able to sleep some. This was the [View Full Entry]

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Jim & Juanita Collins. We are from Richfield, Minnesota, USA. We are going to NZ on Feb. 13, 2008.We will return from NZ on April 9, 2007. The picture is of our youngest daughter Colleen, our granddaughter Elizabeth and I guess our other grandchild "Louie Louie". One thing I found a bit strange is that we miss Valentine's Day. We leave about 2 PM on Feb. 13, fly to Los Angels and leave LA at 8 PM for a 12 hour flight to Auckland. We arrive in Auckland about 7 AM on Feb. 15, completely skipping Feb. 14. We will be [View Full Entry]

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