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

Erstes Ziel am heutigen Tage war an der Bay of Plenty die Stadt Whakatane. Hier wurde auf vielen Flyern das Schwimmen mit Delphinen angeboten. Dort angekommen, mussten wir leider erfahren, dass wir zur falschen Zeit am richtigen Ort waren. Die Delphine halten sich in den Wintermonaten nicht mehr an der Küste auf, sondern schwimmen weiter draußen in der Bucht. Nach kurzer Beratung entschlossen wir uns dazu, den sonnigen Tag im Camper zu verbringen und bis zur Coromandel Halbinsel zu fahren. Unseren ersten Halt legten wir am Waihi Beach ein. Dort konnte man an einem schönen Sandstrand außergewöhnliche uns sehr seltene Muscheln finden. Die schönsten und größten haben wir natürlich für euch mitgenommen. Mal schauen, wie die Muscheln die lange Reise nach Hause überstehen werden. Danach fuhren wir weiter nach Hahei. Dieses schnuckelige Örtchen ist der Ausgangspunkt ... read more

I got the 7am ferry and had a nice sunrise trip to Auckland and desided to get the train out of the city. I started at Pukekohe and headed east. Was very bad roads to start with lots of trucks but that only lasted 10k then it was all go. The rest of the road was really fast b est yet. The ride through the gorge was great but not much room on the roads i had to be really carefull. I got into Waihi at 5. i went into count down for a feed and while in there seen all me gear and asked where i was staying to night, i replayed out the bush somewhere. He insisted i came and stay at his place witch i did. The guy was gream and a nice ... read more

OK so I’m still a bit behind on this whole blogging thing but again, you haven’t missed much. The next few days after Christmas were mainly spent just hanging out with my family. We did a little driving around and a lot of hanging around. I believe I even got to see some of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, the Schweaty Balls sketch from Saturday Night Live and my cousin Michael attempted to figure out the game of cricket. We did learn that it has the most ridiculous names of plays. Like the silly cross leg, the pondivit wally wash, the stanky leg Britannica, and a bunch of other nonsense I cant remember. Unfortunately, I am unable to retrieve the 3 hours of my life spent attempting to understand that strange game. We did spend a day ... read more

Wet and windy Whangarei to sunny Shelly Bay: Coromandel Peninsula Wednesday 26th November 2008 Every other Kiwi male has a moustache! That’s because they call this month Movember and grow moustaches for charity donations. We’re wondering whether they will all be shaved off next week on 1st December or kept for Christmas. Yesterday’s journey from Whangarei down to the Coromandel Peninsula was one of complementary colours, red and green; green lush sub-tropical vegetation and red road cones. New Zealanders have the English habit of leaving miles of red cones restricting traffic and closing lanes all along the highway where nobody is working! Fortunately, unlike in England, traffic isn’t heavy so it didn’t cause too much stress and road rage. Every so often we spotted a few moustachioed workmen holding up “Stop” and “Go” signs and roadwork ... read more

Mountain biking one last time in Rotorua didn't work out due to storms, so we headed up to climb Mount Maunganui. We had thought we would spend the entire day there and head to Tauranga for the night, but sometime early in the afternoon we found ourselves back in Waihi at the back door to the Burrowing Bullie. Christoffel and Alison are opening the bar on Friday, so we thought we could lend a hand or two. We are working through all the last-minute fiascos, trying to make the deadline. It hasn't slowed down, and there is still a lot to do before 5:00pm tomorrow. We are making it fun, though! I made them cheese curds at Jack's request (go Wisconsin) and taught them how to make a Cosmopolitan Martini and different garnishes for cocktails, so ... read more

Remember the south americans that have been staying with us? Franco is from Argentina, and Gonzalo and Esteban are from Chile. They were all here in New Zealand to backpack and work for a while, and have been staying upstairs for over a month while they are between jobs. Best customers we have had. Gonzalo found work in the south island, so he is going today to catch a bus from Hamilton straight down to Wellington. The other two were not approved for working visas and decided to go back home yesterday instead of spending money trying to reapply and wait for job offers. The three of them are really friendly and have kept the upstairs so tidy. They have been great to keep around and we are sad to see them go. Jack and I ... read more

HAPPY 4th!!! I think we are celebrating it with Christoffel and Alison at a tavern down the road that is having a blues night! Should be good! So, remember good ol' Rusty Gun Warder? Santa Claus guy? He is a regular now. You can hear him driving up the road from blocks away with his windows down and indie-rock noises blaring out of his little Nissan Altima. He has this tiny little Jack Russel-looking mutt that sits on a tray that Rusty built for him on the driver's side window. It looks like he swiped it from a Sonic or A&W and told his dog to lie down on it. His car is covered in make-shift bumper stickers, more like tape, really. It is all political and mismatched, but his sole purpose is to get a ... read more