Blogs from Napier, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Tue 27 Mar ----------- Woke up this morning to another clear blue sky. On our way today to Napier which is called the "Art Deco" capital of New Zealnd (if not the world). Well, we were giving Rotorua 10/10 but need to demote it now as we need to give Napier 10/10. What a lovely place this is and we have a lovely room overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The drive to Napier was about 3 hours brokjen up with various stops and for a visit to Huka Falls which were amazing (and were also free for a change!). The journey was lovely because of the stunning scenery which was a bit like a cross between the Scottish Highlands and the Lake District, with its rolling hills, mountains & valleys. One of the prettiest journeys we have ... read more

Got up early to drive to Wai-o-tapu a thermal wonderland. It was very beautiful, boiling pools of mud and incredible colours in the rock formations. We waited to see the Lady Knox geyser at 10.15 on the dot a man came with a solution of chemicals to make the pool beneath erupt and right on cue of it went! By this time it has started to rain and the clouds had come down. We drove on to Lake Taupo via Huka falls which were amazing and then in to town for lunch decided to abandon viewing around the lake and drove on to Napier. We are planning to stay here for 3 nights.... read more

The 6th or maybe 7th pair of flip flops finally gave up the ghost on the walk from the hostel to the car park this morning. It wasn’t even as if the car park was on site – in Wellington, you’ve got to park the car in a public car park, the nearest of which (that doesn’t cost an arm, a leg and 20 pairs of flip flops) is a 10 minute walk away. This, when clutching the contents of your food back, your overnight bag, your laptop bag and your washing bag, is a nuisance in itself. Minus shoes and walking along the main road, you just end up looking like the bag lady. Unimpressed. I set about to find the cable car. Wellington has a traditional cable car that is pretty much a little ... read more

1) Have a bath (bored silly of showers. Lush stores all over the place selling bath bombs, but no bloody baths to put them in. Dagnam it…) 2) Do my washing – properly. None of this 20 minute toploader malarkey. 2 hours, full cycle, clothes blast. With fabric conditioner n all… 3) Do the creep on the front drive…for those of you not in the know, this is the crazy walk the whole family does on the drive at Mum and Dad’s, to the bemusement of the neighbours but much to the amusement of Isla and Jake. 4) Have my hair done with my Vicky (check – a day of catching up, peroxide and Edward Scissorhands arranged for 29 March J ) 5) Open my wardrobe and pick my clothes and shoes for the day, rather ... read more

Apologies once again for the delayed posting, everything has been extremely busy and have had little time on the internet other than uploading photos to facebook etc. Anyway, our first week continued on Day 4 with a drive to Napier in Hawkes Bay on the eastern coast of the North Island. By the time we had checked out of Base Backpackers in Auckland and loaded the car, it was a 5 hour drive past Lake Taupo where will be staying later, before reaching Napier. Napier is an Art Deco style town which was re-built in this style following a massive earthquake in 1931. Napier was to host 2 RWC games in the coming weeks and therefore they had streets allocated to each of the nations to play there. There was the French Quarter, Canadian Quarter and ... read more

Hidee hi campers!! Our very own Gus bus for our north island adventure. So it went from boo hoo's to beep beep toot toot in no time. Well a couple of hours anyway. The second we got into the camper after leaving jean and poppy the weather had reflected our mood and it started to bucket down. Got to pack n save and stocked up on the essentials and off we went. We headed for otaki, Mick and Jean recommended this stop and it certainly lived up to our expectations. The rain gave us a break for a while as we got to otaki. We stayed in a powered site the first night just to ease us into it. Had a wild walk on the beach at sunset and nearly got swept away, the waves were ... read more

With just the one day in Brisbane we took up recommendations we had had to visit a lookout spot where you can see the whole of Brisbane and took a ride on the City Cat on the Brisbane River. However, we first of all wanted to visit Liam’s home in Brisbane. This was relatively easy once we had managed to get the car out through the car park barrier, which took about 10 minutes even with the help of the concierge! Liam’s family home was only about 15 minutes into the suburbs, quite near the Brisbane River, which seems to snake all over the place. His family still own the property although haven’t lived there for many years, since coming to the UK. We then pressed on to the lookout point which did give wonderful views ... read more

Alarms went off around 5.15am to pack and leave for the airport and our flight at 9.15. All went smoothly, with time to top up the tank before dropping the car off after 1900km of travel from Cairns. Flight left slightly late due to waiting on board for one late passenger, who later in the flight I lent my newspaper to. I think he had something to do with Qantas. Strangely we would bump into him again up in Paihau the following day! At the airport we went to pick up the hirer car and ask if we could upgrade it to a 12 seater mini bus to give us a bit more room when Neil joins a few days later. Fortunately they did one at little additional cost, but as usual we got lumbered with ... read more

As usual we set off early and without breakfast in order to make a good start with the driving. The trip up to Paihia was due to take about 3.5 hours, but Nick had given us a number of suggestion of places to stop on the way. We first stopped at the historic village of Puhoi, which was founded by Bohemians in 1863. There we found a delightful little tea room in Puhoi Cottage where the owner made us very welcome and explained the history of the place. He specialised in cream teas, so even thought it was breakfast time, a number of had a huge scone, strawberry jam and thick cream. Pressing on we next stopped at a Dutch Cheese Shop “the last cheese shop for miles”! The shop was stuffed with all sorts of ... read more