Blogs from Mount Maunganui, Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Saying farewell to the South Island, we boarded the Interislander car ferry to make the 3 hour crossing through Marlborough Sound and Cook Straight over to the city of Wellington at the southern end of the North Island. In this part of the country, where the population is 3-1 compared to the south, the scenery is not as magnificent, but it's warmer, and there are endless beautiful beaches, nice little cities, and some fierce geothermal activity going on. The Bay of Plenty, on the east coast, is where the oil tanker/cargo ship ran aground, cracking in half and spilling its load of crude into the ocean. We can see its crippled carcass listing in the water just across from where we're currently situated. Disgusting. Somebody should MAKE THOSE BASTARDS PAY I tell ya! After spending some ... read more

We stayed the night with Steve, Liz and the boys the night before they left for the UK. It gave us the chance to meet Jet before they left for the other side of the world! Its really strange being in a house again after over 2 months living in a camper van - and it’s a huge house too!! Jet is very cute and loves to be fussed so we are going to have our work cut out for us over the next four weeks. Luckily the sun has come out again so the daily walks on the beach with Jet have been lovely. After a few days of doing nothing much but finding our way to the shops, doing some washing and reacquainting ourselves with the square box known as the TV, we headed ... read more

March 24 Lake Tekapo, Today has been primarily a travel day. We left Dunedin around 8 this morning and arrived here in Lake Tekapo in the late afternoon. We did make one interesting stop on the way here to see the Moeraki Boulders. These are huge spherical boulders sitting on the edge of the ocean. They are created from a combination of sandstone and lichen pressed together over the eons. The way they are scattered along the shore looks like the giants were bowling and just left their balls where they stopped rolling. The country side through to here is stunning with the mountains and glacier blue rivers running through the landscape. There are a number of dams that create lakes that add to the local colour schemes. Lake Tekapo itself is equally pretty. We stayed ... read more

Mount Maunganui - op een zomerdag... read more

At Mount Maunganui This is just the place for a holiday – oh – I forgot - I have been on hols for 3 months. What I mean is we ( Suzanne and I) are staying in a unit in a resort Sun Pacific Palms – which has all the amenities - pool, hot tub, bbqs , gym, mini golf etc etc and it is right across the road to the beach. Next to us is a lovely café/bar and in the main part of the town lots of lovely shops and restaurants coffee shops . All you could ask for. At the end of this long spit is the Mount and it looks very impressive, at one side is the beach and Bay of Plenty- must be the Pacific Ocean and the other side is ... read more