Blogs from Northland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 26

I soon began to realise that life at Koru Creek was a rare experience and the living was easy. As well as working in the garden I also helped out with the horse business. Just after New Year we prepared for the annual Gala Day at the local village and spent the day giving pony rides. After being cooked in the sun we took the horses and ourselves to the estuary for a swim in an attempt to cool off. For the next week we had beautiful weather and made the most of the local beaches where I even attempted boogie boarding and became a professional at getting dumped into the sand with no grace at all. I even had my first oyster experience as I was shown by Grazi how to collect them off the ... read more

Aaaah New Zealand. Back to a climate that much more resembles our own in Blighty. Experienced the Kiwi humour almost immediately we stepped off the plane with our shuttle bus driver discussing the finer points of smoking the "green" and explaining that if he hadn't, he would have been a doctor instead of a shuttle bus driver. Our first few nights we were lodged at the Wildlife House Backpackers in Wellington. You can't miss it, it's a five storey building painted like zebra on the outside. First item on the NZ agenda was to attend Chook and Chelle's wedding on the Saturday. This meant hooking up with some old friends from NZ and home and to set about the serious challenge of getting sufficiently lubricated as is the custom of any wedding! The wedding and subsequent ... read more

“Next time I’m gonna hang me undies on your heated towel rack,” Marty shouted as we waved good bye to the hosts, Tom and Monic, of the Lakeside B and B located at the bottom end of New Zealand’s 90 Mile beach. Marty was the guide we had hired to take us the close to 90 miles to Cape Reinga, accessible by beach only in a four wheel drive. I had just finished telling him as we jumped into his not new van that the bed and breakfast was really perfect. Built by Tom who is a life long resident of the area and a scallop fisherman, and operated by his lovely Swiss wife Monic, it was a great find …a taste of pure luxury for a much less than luxury price. The minute I mentioned ... read more

The North of Northland Since many guidebooks suggest that tourists typically go as far North as the bay of Islands then stop, we were determined to see more of the Northland than that. It was the first day that really felt like ‘summah’ as they say here…blue skies, sunshine and little humidity. It was wonderful! We drove to Doubtless Bay (not sure how it got the name) which has a series of little coves and beaches along the fringe. We visited the town of Mangonui where we made arrangements for a 4 wheel drive trip up to Cape Reinga and 90 Mile beach for the weekend. The first beach we stopped at was Cable Bay where we had lunch and watched the locals boogie board and play in the surf. The black volcanic rock, which we ... read more

we stopped to take in the sights... read more