Blogs from Orewa, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

Well here I am after 23 hours and one lost day. The plane journey wasn’t quite as horrific as I had imagined, the food however was! Much to my relief my OCD of manic checking and double checking appeared to be the only thing I had left behind in London. I stumbled off the plane and made it to central Auckland without any hitches. I navigated myself and accompanying luggage to my connecting bus and was shortly making my way to Waiwera, north of Auckland, to be collected by my first WWOOF host, Wendy. When we reached our destination it soon became apparent why they had chosen to name their farm ‘Tranquil Heights’. The area is a natural reserve and surrounded by rolling green hills, dense forest, turquoise waters and lush vegetation. My new ‘home’ was ... read more

We went on a day trip with the Kiwi Experience to Cape Reigna, where the Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea. It has some amazing views despite the weather being very foggy. We visited a Kauri Forest, trees with one of the largest trunks in the world! weird. Then we went sandboarding down giant sand dunes which was fantastic! I loved the sport although i nearly fell off a few times it was definately worth it. I also went wave riding with Andy Magne and Dave, that was surprisingly the best experience ive had all threw travelling so far. We were riding some of the strongest waves in the Tasman Sea. It was ace!... read more

Yesterday we set off up the coast towards the bay of islands. on the way we stopped to climb a volcano, seriusly. When we got there it was a track which led up through a forrest and it seemed steep but ok at first, then as we got deeper and deeper the track actually turned into a slippery step ladder track carved roughly into the rocks! We got about half way up and i was really scared of getting back down again, so chris went on ahead. He seemed ages, until i heard him shout that he was on his way down again, he said that at the end, it was literally a rock climb along a narrow clifff to the top, and all that was on the peak was a little metal rod to hold ... read more

After the black water rafting we headed to Orewa which is just north of Auckland. We decided to stop here to break up the Drive to the Bay of Islands. The most amazing thing about coming here was that we met Marion and David. We first meet them in Lake Tekapo and then in Mount Cook back in December. Our paths also crossed in Franz Josef. We were really surprised to meet them again in National Park as they said they were not going to do the Tongariro crossing but they had had a change of plan. By this time we were good friends so when we left there we said our goodbyes. When we arrived in Orewa today and checked into the hostel they were the first people we met. We could not believe it ... read more