Blogs from Whakatane, Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

19th November It takes a while to sort myself out today, it has been raining all night and my table, chair a few bits of washing are all wet. As usual I need to be off site by 10, as I was waiting for my toast in the kitchen I got chatting to a lady, she asked where I was from Lincoln. Me too she says, she moved to Tattershall about a year ago. Small world. Slowly get myself together, feel better after tea and toast. Hand my fob into reception and head off, with no plans other than south. Eventually got to a dead end, thought it might be an idea to see what sat nav said for herself at this point. I decide to head towards Opotiki and see what happens. No roller coaster ... read more

Thursday December 24 – Today we drove a little further east in the Bay of Plenty, to Whakatane. The Wh is one letter in Mauri (spoken by the indigenous Mauri people in NZ) and sounds like the F in English. So it sounds like Fa-ka-ta-nay. We checked out the beach there and then drive a few more miles to Ohope beach. It was cold and cloudy – not quite the summer weather we had envisioned – but still beautiful. We stopped to buy some cold medicine and bought sausages for lunch that were being sold outside a store we were at.... read more

A day of bush and birdsong. The local council has created an 18-kilometre loop walk that begins near Whakatane town centre, then ascends and descends through generally pristine native bush and hugs the coastline before descending to Opotiki Beach. After walking the length of the beach, walkers ascend through another reserve in which the native North Island robin has been released, then blunder round the suburbs before finding their way back to town. We began the walk early in the morning when the sea glowed under the low sun and everything was fresh and clean. At first, the trail to Opotiki wound up and down through beautiful woodland with fern trees and a varied canopy, or hugged the coastline with its turquoise seas and red-blooming pohutukawa trees. In the bush, tuis teased us by posing in ... read more

Right, time for a small update on what’s going on down under! Since the last time I did an update, I have been farming, mountain biking and generally having a good time. Me & Rob travelled to Rotorua on the 6th, to spend a week with a family doing general farm work and gain some experience of Kiwi life. Rotorua is a pretty special place in itself, due to large amount of volcanic activity there, the major downside of this activity however is that the whole city stinks of shit! (Due to the sulphur) We however were staying just outside the city, in small town called Oropi. We were greeted by the lovely Lilly family, who welcomed us at their small farm, and introduced us to their daughter, her boyfriend, their 8 year old son, the ... read more

I have been here almost for a week and have seen already so many amazing things, I still cannot believe it. We caught really bad weather in Rotorua, although, we wanted to stay a little bit longer we had to find the sun and head towards Whakatane. After some shopping we drove towards the Rainbow Mountain and Kerosene Creek Thermal Area which looked secluded enough. We wanted to be away from tourists! It is surprising how touristic NZ actually is. You have to pay pretty much for everything. We were lucky to find this spot as it is the only free place where you can swim in thermal river in a beautiful nature. We stayed over night. I am getting comfortable with the van however still uneasy when at night. I am scared someone will knock ... read more