Blogs from Bay of Islands, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 67

After a five hour drive arrived at Paihia - almost like a seaside town - very relaxed with lots of bars and restaurants. Staying at a place called Peppertree Lodge. Booked a days cruise with SailNZ. Caught some fish on the way out to the islands, also dived for mussells - had a great surf & turf barbeque lunch. Amazing scenery. Great snorkelling. Did some jumping from the mast. Saw a massive pod of dolphins - around 30, all showing off around the boat. All in all a great day out. Following that had a great drunken night out with Vanessa and Chris who we met on the trip. ... read more

Kerikeri Our final cycle ride in New Zealand took us into Kerikeri from Mangonui in warm sun and cloud. We just found Nature's Orchard on the main road just before committing ourselves to a steep hill, phew! We found ourselves with a nice self contained home with a swimming pool just outside the read door. It was cool though but we managed a little swim. We then found ourselves an Astra sedan into which we could fit the separated bike. We then went to Pahia from where we went to Urupukapuka island including sailing through the Hole in the Rock and having dolphins swimming up to us and under the boat. Thrilling. The island was empty allowing a lone walk for the day. And then it's back to Auckland as the weather is not hot.... read more

Just fun random stuff...... read more

Sorry I haven’t written in ages! I have been consumed with…well, reading, sleeping, and hanging out with mom! Today it is raining raining raining. It is nice not to be frantic on vacation. Mostly when people are on vacation they zoom around madly trying to make the most, as it were, of each little moment by cramming it as full as possible with distracting, entertaining, or culturally-enriching events. There is something about being on a boat that just forces you to slow down a bit. Before I left most people were so impressed I was going to New Zealand and asked about all the stuff I was going to do. My general response was that, yes I was excited, but mostly I was going to see mom. That said, most of what I’ve been doing isn’t ... read more

After a full day of travelling on 21 Feb I arrived back in Bangkok at 9pm. Decided to see Khao San Road by night and so booked into a hotel just off the main street. Not exactly five star luxury, but not quite Leonardo Di Caprio dodgy standards a la The Beach either! The bathroom was so small that the door only opened half way and you had to squeeze in and shut the door before you could get to the loo. Spent the evening haggling with the street vendors, but have to say that I'm not that good at it! Besides which, everything is so cheap to start with, that you feel bad negotiating on the price at all. Had a last wander round Bangkok the next morning and then it was off to the ... read more

New Zealand must be beautiful. That's what everybody says. So the level of expectation was pretty high. So when we drove around and just saw green hills and the road in front of us we thought maybe it's not true, maybe they all overstate a bit. But we found them. The places more beautiful than you can imagine. And the first one was some remote bay near the bay of islands. The water was clear and turquise, big rays and sharks could be spotted from the cliffs as huge shadows sliding through the bay. Knobby trees arched their branches over the rocks and the sand of the small coves. We were alone and set up our tent on top of a cliff looking over the bay. The rest of the day we could just marvel...... read more