Blogs from Thames, Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Bon bien me voici à Thames situé dans la péninsule de Coromandel.. 6 heures d'autobus depuis Pahia hier. Mais sur la route les paysages sont magnifiques, alors c'est plutôt plaisant de se déplacer ainsi. Pour ma dernière journée à Pahia j'ai visité Waitingi, l'endroit ou un important traité à été signé avec les Maori. Le site est magnifique. De cet endroit c'était le point de départ d'une belle marche de 10 km (allez-retour) pour les Haruru Falls. Les chutes sont plutôt décevantes, mais c'était la seule récompense rendu au bout du sentier. Mais la marche à travers la forêt et la mangrove valait la peine. Aucunes de mes photos peuvent rendre justice à la beauté de cette forêt. Le vacarme assourdissant des insectes et des oiseaux auraient suffit pour rendre ce trajet intéressant pour un aveugle. ... read more

OK, so I've finally succumbed to using the crap internet here long enough to write a blog. I've been in Thames for 3 weeks now and it's definitely time to move on! Not a lot has really happened here to mention, but I did get to see a Santa Parade, which appears to be a national thing whereby at Christmas every town has a little parade of various local businesses and such and then at the end someone is dressed as Santa. It was alright, quite nice to see a little town being all community spirited and that. What else? Well, one of the reasons I wanted to stay in one spot for a while was to really get in with the locals and not feel like such a tourist, which I achieved pretty well - ... read more

Hey all, just checking in so you know I'm still alive. Unfortunately, I have quite literally nothing to report at present. I've cleaned a garage, spruced up some fridges, mowed a lawn and worked in the office at the weekend and that's been pretty much my life since I got here. Saw a cool band though on Saturday and was surprised to learn the bass player was the drummers 60 year old mum. We had a laugh though when I chatted to the drummer afterwards and said how they played some songs my band did and he said "typical isn't it? you fly thousands of miles to the other side of the world just to hear the same songs..." Went for a bit of a run this evening (it was quite literally a "bit" of a ... read more

So I was very skeptical of Thames at first, I'm not gonna lie (actually "skeptical" is a little soft, I HATED Thames at first haha). However, things have picked up quite a bit! I got here a few days ago, and am committed to two weeks of work here. The work is really not bad- it's cleaning and making beds and such, which I'm actually quite good at if I do say so myself. I know it's a dumb thing to be good at, but it's nice to do something well, even if it is just making beds and washing dishes and vaccuuming. I was super bummed about being stuck here for Halloween, and THEN I found out that the local musical theatre company is putting on Rocky Horror on Halloween night! When you buy your ... read more

Up super early to get onto the Stray bus. Our first stop was to go up Mount Eden which you guessed it is another Volcano. There is a grassy crater at the top and you can see all of Auckland from up there. We then got out of the city. Our next stop was a roadside fruit and veg stand. Vera and I decided to buy some veg to make a stir fry that night. We also bought a bag of kiwis because they were so cheap. We got a bag with like 24 kiwis for $2NZD. Crazy! We stopped in Thames and got a few more things for our stir fry and then the stray bus dropped us off at our hostel. We were the only 2 hopping off. There was a sign at the ... read more

After finally kitting out the van to our own taste (with extra cushions for that homely touch), we head north of Rotorua and stay at a place next to the river called "Friendly Waiteti Family Trout Stream Holiday Park" which I admit sounds a bit like NZ's answer to Butlins (on a much smaller scale of course) but it was great - firstly, only 1 family as such who had a year old child which they whisked away to the other side of the park - excellent; and only about 3 other couples and that was it! Place was lovely and quiet. We picked a choice spot away from everyone else and right next to the river and just had the ducks and doves (there was a dovecote adjoining the owners house) for company. We went ... read more