Blogs from Bay of Islands, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

J'ai pris ce matin la route pour le North pour rejoindre Brigit et Ian les aider sur le bateau (et leur jardin) Il a d'abord fallut s'arrêter à Silverdale acheter de quoi équiper l'auto, puis direction le fil rouge de la journée, les cascades. Une première avec Piroa Falls, puis les Waipu Caves, où j'ai chaussé mes belles bottes en plastique pour observer des glowworms !! (des vers luisants) on se croirait sous une pluie d'étoile c'est magnifique. Seconde cascade avec la Whangarei falls, puis dernière avec la Rainbow falls. La voiture roule bien malgré un parallélisme elle tire toujours à gauche, tant pis. Et il continue de pleuvoir mais pas intermittence, ici les terres sont balayées par les vents ! Me voilà arrivé à Tortura North, Ian est né sur l'île de Man ! (TT) ... read more

L'ancien blog étant malade, nous vous proposons cette roue de secours en attendant le docteur Samedi 23 juillet en l'an 2016 après JésusChristfilsdeMariefemmedeJoseph : Après des retrouvailles larmoyantes à l’aéroport, nous partons chercher le château ambulant à quelques pas de l’aéroport. Nous découvrons le monstre à 4 roues lorsqu’un petit souci administratif se met sur notre route… l’oubli des permis de conduire français (le permis international ne fait pas foi)… ça commence bien ! Nous faisons donc envoyer les précieux permis le jour même de France... Romain et moi s’improvisons donc chauffeur de bus et guide touristique pour les jours à venir. Le samedi étant bien entamé et les esprits fatigués, une balade en bord de mer termine la journée. Le dimanche nous partons à l’assaut d’Auckland : Queen’s Street, la Art Gallery, Auckland Domain, Moun ... read more

C: We headed north from Auckland on Saturday morning. Our first stop was Puhoi where we had been recommended a cheese factory and shop/cafe to visit. It was a beautiful setting and there was some great cheese which seduced Roger into buying an overly expensive platter for brunch! Oh well. The cheese was good and the cheese was nice. After having gorged ourselves on cheese we drove to the coast and the strangely named Goat Island marine reserve. It's supposed to be a great place for snorkelling but the chilly wind and overcrowded black sand beach put us off a bit. We headed on and found a stunning stretch of white sandy beach at Pakiri, we were soon to realise this was the first of many, and were glad we did. After the obligatory British paddling ... read more

We've had a great past few days in the Bay of Islands sadly the weather hasn't really been on our side, its been warm, yes, with a few sunny spells but it's mainly drizzling and cloudy. One bonus is that it's given Rich the chance to recover from his burns ?? ? However, we've been in NZ a week now and I'm still struggling to see any signs of a tanline. (white girl problems) I can dream.. Starting the morning on Saturday (6th Feb) with a coffee on the waterfront in Paihia at a place called Upperdeck, great views of the bays and top class coffee ?? We booked ourselves onto a Discover the Bays cruise for the afternoon. It was SO worthwhile! I would highly recommend. Even with the less than perfect weather conditions it ... read more

Thursday December 31 – We woke up to a beautiful beach sunrise and then drove to the Goat Island Marine Reserve. It has amazing snorkeling, but we were there too early to even rent equipment, so we walked around for a while and then carried on north. We stopped at a couple more places as we drove and then in Paihia to get the ferry to Russell in the Bay of Islands. The weather was not great and we were not really impressed with Russell. The best part was that Charles Darwin had been there before. Once we took the ferry back to Paihai, we went to the info site for help finding a place to sleep. It’s really high season at this time and camping is often already booked out. Plus, it is New Year’s ... read more