Blogs from Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 32

Aamulla herättiin aikaisin Renwickissa ja hätäisen aamiaisen jälkeen painettiin talla pohjaan ja otettiin suuntimaksi pohjoissaarelle menevä lautta. Matkalla näytti, että ehtiminen menisi niukoille, mutta onneksi ehdittiin kyytiin. Valitettavasti mentiin samalla lautalla kuin saarelle tullessa, joten jouduttiin katsomaan samat leffat uudestaan. Koska edellisellä kerralla vietettiin Wellingtonissa aikaa vain parisenkymmentä minuuttia, päätettiin tällä kertaa jättää auto parkkiin ja katsastaa hieman kaupunkia. Parkkiruudun löytäminen ei ollutkaan mitään ihan helppoa, sillä ilmaispaikkoja ei ollut tarjolla missään keskustan lähettyvillä. Pitkän kiertelyn ja hermojen menetysten jälkeen pysäköitiin auto sitten ihan ytimeen kalliiseen parkkihalliin. Elämä on. Nähtävyyksien sijaan päädyttiin käppäilemään Wellingtonin ostoskadulla Cuba Streetillä. Pari tuntia siellä kierreltyämme ja lounas mutus... read more

Sick/Happy by Hell is for heroes off the under appreciated Neon Handshake album. Excellent song. But yes i am sick, i got food poisoning a couple days ago (i wont go into details, but its unpleasant) and i haven't shaken it yet; although i did manage to drag myself into town, so i am getting better. I was also sick about 3 weeks ago, when i ate some left over lasagne and got sick from all the cheese. Ha! I'm stuck being vegan for ever as my body can't process cheese anymore! Ok, so i spent 2 very pleasant days in Rotorua (the second of which with a very charming Australian librarian cvalled Rosie) and did a bit of the tourist thing (we went on a coach tour!) and then made my way up to the ... read more

Today we headed to the Coromandel Peninsula, southeast of Auckland. We said goodbye to the Bavaria B&B and rented our little car. Driving on the left side of the road was really pretty easy and we made it out of the city and on to the highway. We took a few stops to enjoy the scenery, do some shopping, and hunt some geocaches. We even stopped at someone’s house to buy some avocadoes. Our route crossed some small mountains and there were some sections just like West Virginia switchbacks. The scenery along the Coromandel Coast was beautiful, lots of looks over blue harbors as we wound through the mountains right along the water. (Note from Amy: Brian is doing a fantastic job driving and all I’m doing is feeling sick from all of the “swirlies”). We ... read more

It was a very hot night, punctuated by heavy rain and the fact that I fell out of bed! It wasn’t a loud crash, but I was awake enough to stop myself hitting the floor. That’ll teach me to ensure the double bed is set up each night, rather than the single one! Still, I had a good night’s sleep and awoke on time at 06h30. I washed, got myself dressed without any adult assistance and went into town for a slap up breakfast at Mrs Ahmed’s Pie Shop. After reading the paper (world news demoted to a single page), I made my way back to the van, packed everything (nearly) away and went off to hand in my keys (and claim my $10 refund). That done, it was later than I’d have liked and I ... read more

things i must remember about my stay at kauotunu motor camp. a. the name. kauotunu. maybe the spelling. b. dilwin, her husband, and her two adorably cute and crazily hyper boys. c. the family get together and barbecues i was allowed to be a part of. heather and nigel's good bye barbecue. how quickly i was welcomed into a world and a group of friends. d. walking through the campground and doing a double take at the crystal clear stars up in the night sky with nothing to distract from their clear patterns. e. millions of tiny, broken down shells. a colorful, sand mosaic. f. nearly falling off the kauri walk as i inadvertently tried to hike down the side of a cliff that was never intended to be hiked down. that was a close call. ... read more