Blogs from Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 7

27th February – late on Saturday evening there was a violent thunder storm in the area with some heavy rain and a spectacular lightning display. But on the Sunday morning it was dry again. We had decided to explore the coastline a bit so set off towards Opotiki about 45 kilometers away. We were in no hurry and stopped a couple of times by beaches where the sea was a stunning colour. People were fishing, some were jogging or walking, a couple were surfing and one or two swimming. But the length of the beaches made it seem as though they were virtually deserted. At each location we had a splendid view of White Island and, perhaps because of the rain during the night, the volcano was giving off a huge plume of steam which was ... read more

Thursday 24th – today we are off on our special ‘holiday’ so Graham was up at about 6.15 to prepare Sweetie for her “rest period”. I followed as soon as the alarm went off at 6.30am. There were a few other people about but generally most people were still asleep so we had to be as quiet as possible although when you are “putting a caravan away” it’s practically impossible not to make some noise. Legs have to be raised, the awning put away, the elevating roof put down, water hoses dis-connected and all the additional camping paraphernalia stored inside. Anyway, we were ready to go at 7.40, ten minutes later than planned. So we said a sad farewell to Sweetie hoping she would be alright for the next 11 days. We were flying to New ... read more

Well it's my turn to write, over to you Charl to check the spelling. I'm going to start by saying what a terrific trip we had to the Orbit restaurant at the top of Sky Tower, great food, relaxed atmosphere and the views all across the city as the restaurant revolved were fantastic. The evening was also rather special as we were lucky enough to be in Ackland on their Anniversary holiday week-end, and there was a magnificent firework display across the harbour. We started out on Monday to travel around the Coromandal Peninsula, needless to say we were up packed and on the road by 9o'clock. The plan was to travel up the scenic coast and across to Cathedral Cove and hot water beach,where the thermal waters brew just below the sand and you can ... read more

Hello everyone. We have had a lovely last two days here at Mount. Following the rainy day we woke to sunshine again – a bit of luck as it had been forecast for rubbish weather. So back to glorious sunshine with lashings of suntan cream factor 30 being used by me and Suz. After a brekki of “mum’s” poached eggs and a bit of lazing about food supplies were running low and as we were expecting visitors we went off to the local NewWorld supermarket to stock up…and to the veg stall down the road $5 ( £2.50) for a bag of 10 sweetcorn. …cheap as chips. Having been a bit bemused by the signs which said “stonefruit $5 a bag”I was wondering what a “stonefruit” was…but then my clever daughter looked at me as if ... read more

I stayed with a family of four; James and Victoria with their two boys (aged two and five). James is English and Victoria a Kiwi but she lived in England for 15 years, where they met and decided to move out of London to a more peaceful lifestyle in New Zealand. They have a lovely open plan house, in a nice rural setting so there were some great views. I had a decent room with an en suite! There’s also a lodge which they rent out to guests who can then access the pool and gardens. Most of the time I was doing various gardening jobs, which was pretty good with the sun shining for the majority of the week. They had a small vegetable patch, so we ate a few home-grown things, including strawberries (one ... read more