Blogs from Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 34

Day 30 - Saturday 19th May Drove to carpark for Cathedral Cove where it felt quite breezy and cool. The four of us took a walk along the very scenic coast path stopping at Gemstone Bay and Stingray bay on the way to Cathedral Cove. It was all very pretty and for the most part, we walked on a path through bush (full of palms, tree ferns, and some big trees) and some fields. The sea all along was a gorgeous turquoise blue colour! It turned out to be a hot and sunny walk, we could have worn shorts, t-shirt and flip flops rather than the jeans, jumpers, coats and walking shoes!! Initially we laughed at sar when she suggested changing into shorts for the walk, but we wished we had! It was the hottest day ... read more

Day 28 - Thursday 17th May Porridge, porridge! Emptied toilet and filled water...hmmmm! Filling the water up took AGES!! It just kept filling and filling and filling....... You could have filled up a few baths!! That's another thing... they didn't seem to have filled up the water when we picked the van up, but that was because there was something wrong between the waste tank and water tank. We hardly used any water before it had to be filled up again. Dropped the van at the garage to be repaired and wandered into town again. Oh... forgot to say, when we arrived in Rotorua, you certainly know about it!! It smells of bad eggs! After picking the van up we drove out to Hell's Gate again to do our free walk. The walk around the thermal ... read more

We started the day with a nice leisurely breakfast on our sunny balcony. We jumped in car and headed for the 309 dirt road which crosses the hilly spine that runs down the centre of the peninsular. It is hilly and twisty but very quiet (no monstrous logging trucks as encountered on many mountain roads). Half way along there is a short walk to a magnificent grove of Kauri trees. Nearby there is an interesting ‘Siamese’ Kauri where two trees have fused into one. The whole area is incredibly luxuriant in greenery. There is one especially impressive peak called ‘Castle Rock’ which is climbable, but I couldn’t persuade Jen and didn’t fancy doing it alone. We reached the smaller than anticipated but quaint old gold town of Coromandel. After ambling the streets and an obligatory ... read more

After our extreme time in the Bay of Islands we headed back down to Auckland so that we could start the Kiwi Experience. For those of you who don't know about the Kiwi Experience it is a bus network for young travellers like ourselves who want to get around New Zealand and don't want to be surround by slow old folks. We really wern't sure what to expect - a group of smelly travellers trying to "get it on" non stop - or a load of crazy kiwis doing stupid things. Well....it was a mixture really. We got picked up in Auckland by our first bus driver 'Scotty' who was basically a nutter allowed to drive the Kiwi bus. He took us to Mount Eden and we saw the extinct volcano there which was pretty groovy ... read more

URLAUB… ist doch die schönste Jahreszeit! Endlich raus aus Albany und das wahre NZ kennenlernen. Nachdem der Start unter einem schlechten Stern stand, war der Urlaub umso besser. Aber von vorn: Ostern war das Wetter hier traumhaft. Herrlicher Sonnenschein, blauer Himmel und kein Regen. Ab Mitwoch wurde es schlechter und schlechter und sollte bis Samstag weiter abkühlen. Der Plan war Donnerstag früh zu starten und bis Sonntagabend zu bleiben. Die Vorhersagen lagen bei 15 Grad und viel Regen! Weiterhin waren wir 6 Leute (alles Deutsche). Karin und Rainer sollten fahren und Peter. Doch am Mittwochnachmittag kam eine Skype- Nachricht, dass Karin und Rainer einen Autounfall hatten. Auto ist total kaputt, beiden geht’s aber relativ gut. So bangten wir bis Mittwochabend noch, ob es Donnerstag 7Uhr losgehen soll?! Dann kam die erlösende Nachricht: Start Donnerstag früh! Da ... read more