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Published: February 7th 2008
Hello, we have decided to split the blogging efforts between the 2 of us. I got the northern portion (not as exciting as the south but I will try to cheese it up a little).
I have to got to say I have given up trying to get these people to drive on the right side of the road. They are stubborn and won't conform to my efforts to convert them. At times it was almost dangerous as I try to coax them over to the right side of the road. I feel sorry for the turn indicator, so many times I have tried to put that thing in Drive or Park (all the controls like turn signal and gear shifter are opposite as well. You can tell the Canadians and American drivers here, they are the ones with the windshield wipers wiping while making random and dangerous turns.
For all the MoT folks out there you would love the road signage here, they have 15 Km curves preceded by a 100 Km speed. The roads are wild here, shoulders are about 10 cms wide next to shear dropoffs. Lots of fun.
Well on with the update. We spent a couple of days in Auckland getting oriented, still working on that. Auckland was nice, we went to Devonport where Joanne once lived when she was about 10 years old, pretty little area of Auckland. She even found the house they lived in. Very Cool.
We picked up the Jucy Van, you gotta see the vans in this country, they are all painted with distinct art and sayings on them. We have a small camper van with enough space for Joanne's stuff. We have done very well not killing each other while driving and living in this rolling toaster.
We went to an amazing beach that came recommended from a Kiwi we met in Fiji. We met some people on the beach and they over their quota of green lipped mussels so they gave them to us. We had a nice dinner of pasta with mussels and garlic sauce.. We are doing quite well with buying food and making our own meals. The food here is really expensive (send money) and it is really cheaper to eat at Burger King, McDonalds and other fine diners, but I fear death so we continue to shop and cook. Lots of one pot meals. The restaurants here are not the best and other than Fish and Chips the meals are way over priced for what you get.
here are a few pics of the North Island. Well after 3 days of trying to read my camera card I have determined that it is @(A$&*$&*$(). I have lost all my pictures from the start of the trip. I can't express what a total downer that is. The only good thing is that Joanne has a camera as well and we still have those pics. I am going to send the card home and hopefully someone will be able to get the data off it.
Well back to the update.
We headed south after going to Coramanadel, the beaches and scenery are outstanding I would put a picture in here but not till I backup all of Joannes pics first. We went to Rotorua. We stayed a couple of days there and saw some real cool geothermal activity, we went to some Polynesian spa, got kinda grossed out with it as there were lots of floaters in the water that looked strangely like dead skin. After 2 showers we got over that experience.
We then headed down to wine country, not that we like wine or anything but there are some really nice wineries here in NZ. Great white wines with some good Pinot Noir varietals as well. The weather turned a little on us and we were happy to check out the wineries. We stayed a couple of days in Lake Taupo on the recommendation of some Kiwis, it was a very nice town with a beautiful lake. We did some great walks and then headed down to see the Glow Worm caves:
Waitomo is world famous for it's caves and glow worms. There was a host of wild adventures you could partake in Waitomo, such as repelling down about 35 meters in pitch darkness, slip off the repelling gear and throw yourself in a pitch black flowing under ground river, shot out of a waterfall and raft down to an opening. We opted for the gentle glide down the stream in pitch blackness to see the glow worms all over the ceiling and walls of the tunnel. This is the site that David Attenboroh sp ? filmed for his Planet Earth Documentary that was on BBC. We had purchased the DVDs before we left and we excited about seeing them first hand. This was an amazing site, the person who took us in gave us a first rate tour of the caves as well as the flora and fauna of the area. Excellent adventure for only about $50 per person. A must see.
Napier is a coastal town in the south east end of the north island, it was destroyed in the 1930s but an earthquake and then what wasnt' destroyed by the earthquake was razed by the subsequent fires that ensued. They then rebuilt the town and there is a tremendous amount of Art Deco buildings. I love the Art Deco style and it is really nice to the buildings all from the same era. They have a festival that attracts Art Deco fans from all around the world as the whole town gets into the spirit by dressing to that period. Unfortunently we weren't there for that.
I will update the rest of the trip and try to get Joannes pics backed up before posting here.
cheers all, miss everyone, well almost everyone.
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shannon kidd
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HI THERE....WE MISS YOU!!
HI....THIS IS SOOO COOL THAT WE GET TO SEE WHERE YOU ARE...CAN'T WAIT TO SEE PICTURES....I MISS YOU AND WISH I COULD BE SOOO LUCKY TO BE DOING WHAT YOU GUYS ARE!! BE SAFE AND KEEP EMAILING!!!