Blogs from Ahipara, Northland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

DAY 1. - Left Auckland via our Mate Dean to pick up trailer load of household goods we were to transport to Ahipara in return for free accomodation at his "holiday home". Kids in transit (Khaela and Pheonix)- 5.5 hr trip was a breeze. Stopped off at Kawakawa to see Hundertwasser Toilets, which we were all intrigued by. (creative minds would appreciate this). Arriving in Kaitaia, we stocked up at Pak n Save, then headed the 14km's to Ahipara. Arrived at Dean's, a lovely place, elevated with beautiful sea views and a view of the entire 90mile beach loop - right up to the Cape. After a hastly unload we headed to Deans mums a few k's away to uplift a quad bike we had been offered to enjoy for the duration of our stay. Deans ... read more

A WHOLE week in the north of the Northlands! The sun, sand, rocks, sand dunes and kitchen Spent it all with the Walker Whanau (plus adoptees) on the waterfront batch (you should call in sometime...) Partial dislocation of shoulder whilst attempting to surf and burnt to various shades of brown, broken out in ugly welts from the surf wax...LOVE IT! Found out the weather isn't too flash up in Nepal with deaths and flight cancellations....stand by mode is all on now Oh and I got a great introduction to using a digital SLR....so want one right now (in fact I'm bidding for one right now before I fly out tonite...fingers crossed) Pity I don't have the photos from the North but will get it off Nathan (all 6+ gB of it LOL) Well it has been ... read more

It continued to rain for a good few hours and I just read and played guitar. As soon as it stopped though I got up and decided I would head to Rainbow Falls. This turned out to be trickier than I thought! I had to make a pretty wet river crossing, hopping across some pretty slippery rocks with my shoes and socks in one hand! The path was pretty muddy due to all the rain and no-one else was in sight, probably for the same reason. Having got lost a few times it was beginning to get pretty dark so I thought I'd better run! A nice chap walking his dog pointed me in the right direction and I just ran, I felt as fit as I've ever felt, it was exhillarating! I eventually made it ... read more

Ahipara 25th - 27th November 2008 This sweet litttle place is close to Kaitai and was to be our base for exploring Cape Reinga. It sits right at the southern end of Ninety Mile Beach. We went down to the beach to swim - the surf was great fun. Our campsite had rustic charm with a log fire burning in the main room at night. Very cosy as the nights still have a chilly edge. We got chattingto a lovely Kiwi couple, Gordon and Marcia, who come from Christchurch - they have said for us to look them up when we get there. People are extremely friendly and welcoming here. ... read more

Deb and I set out to explore Northland for a week before Chris' 21st birthday on Saturday. On our 4th day of roadtripping we made it to Ahipara, a surfer's paradise. We woke up and drove to Shipwreck Bay, where you can walk along the points during low tide and see sand dunes. It was approaching high-tide, so worrying that we might get caught being thrown in the water, we put our cameras in a plastic bag, threw our wallets in the locked glove compartment, hid everything in the trunk and set off to walk around the rocky point before we couldn't get past. The walk was beautiful. The jutting rocks, the beautiful blue water, the giant sand dunes beside us. It was awesome. Deb was adventurous and set out to climb the dunes, while I ... read more

A Weekend with the Families This weekend has been stage two of the moving out of the flat. Friday morning Gary's family arrived at our place at 7am with the trailer, we all loaded it up and headed north to my parents place. It was a relaxing weekend, Gary played in the Kaitaia squash tournament and we did just a little exploring. Gary's family went to Cape Reinga, quad biking, along to doubtless bay. I went to Rarawa Beach with Mum & Dad for a look. It's on the east coast just north of Houhora. A beautiful long quiet beach with super white sand. Today it was back to Auckland and back to reality for the next four and half weeks before finishing work and doing the final move.... read more

And still the tree of us are travelling together. Anna, me and Marian. So what did we do since last time? Ow yeah: we went from Pahia (after the karaoke-night) towards Allen our grandpa-host. The first few seconds we were doubting if we would follow him with our car (he came with his car, because we wouldn't find it on our own.. o no, we wouldn't). At first he seemed like a little monster, walking bare foot.. but, we tried to trust him... After 40 min of really bad road in the middle of NOWHERE, we even got much more doubts.. Me and marian had to move to his car because we were scraping the ground with our fully loaded car. So we arrived to his wooden house (read: shed), where we got one room, for ... read more