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Wow!! I can't believe it, sitting here

Sorry i have to interupt and say that right now as i sit here Laura is frieking out cos a moth has just entered the room and keeps taunting her!!

Anyways as i was saying - sitting here it's hard to imagine it was four weeks ago today that we landed after 27 hours travelling into Auckland!! can ya believe it!!

Well it is one month in and i think i left you guys last time with us just arriving into Whitianga (f-itianga), Coromandel region. So with us arriving late afternoon we dumped our bags and tried to do some shopping at the local four square (basically a 7-11) but with not much on offer and the butchers and things closed we were resigned to eating out (oh no not again ha-ha), And left the shopping until the day after when the butchers and and a few other shops we're open.

Anyways we set off looking for a nice restaurant which served pizzas big enough for two for just 20NZ, it was we were told by the lonely planet called fireplace and had really nice comfy sofas.....hmmmm, turns out not only were my directions way out!! Ha after walking about half a mile in the wrong direction (and the return journey) a lovely motelier on the outskirts of town (yeah really, it was that far) told us we needed to walk back into town and head past the ferry wharf BUT!!!!! it wasn't called fireplace anymore, it was called Wild Hogs - cue the images of a massive hells angels biker bar in the lovely picturesque Whitianga!

Not so, we had a really nice bar/restaurant pretty quiet and really well priced. We both shared some garlic bread and then had Bangers n' Mash - Nice

That was pretty much the way things went last week it was just a really chilled week of drinking beer and sitting in the sun on the patio.

We did go shopping the day after and over the period of the week we managed to conjure up some great food, Chicken in a pretty minging home brand Honey and mustard sauce, a rather dry chicken salad....

Note to self never take things like mayo and salad dressings or actual momma's home cooked and made sauces for granted again!!

We did manage to have some killer steak from the butchers, re-igniting my taste for meat haha

We spent a bit of time on the net and calling home over the last few days and booking the bus for Friday to katikati (Known by Tina and the locals as kitikat)

We had some awesome weather during our stay at the cat's pyjamas hence our decision not to move on, and to extend our stay to friday instead of weds. However i'm rather dissapointed to tell all that in spite of my best efforts to remove (or replace) my t-shirt sun tan, i'm still sporting the infamous white t-shirt!!

I spent one morning Photographing some pro work around the town, which amongst other things was home to a really cool volunteer fire service with a cool looking old fire pump outside, and also a rather intriguing building which housed a kids clothing store and a funeral home!! quaint!!

As the week in Whitianga came to a close we had a more leisurely start to proceedings with the mini-bus picking us up at 1130 from right outside the hostel. it was nice but the journey was not leaving both me and Laura feeling sick as the erratically driven mini bus threw us from side to side.

We changed transport in Ngatea (pronoounced Natea - Silent G) and thankfully boarded a regular coach after rapidly picking up a cheese and chicken roll for lunch from a local sandwich shop next to the gas station. we then continued on our way to KatiKati to meet my old friend from Celebrity Cruises Miss Tina taylor (Take a bow Tina), who welcomed myself and little Laura L into her home for the weekend.

It was slightly ironic to find her bleaching someones hair, considering she was the last person to do the very same to my barnet!!

We waited for her to finish work and then took the bags to her house before making our way to the firestation where we met some other brits (Wayneeez, Soo and Dan and Liz) and a handful of kiwis (not the birds actual locals!!).

The weekend got a bit messy, but we ate some thai food, some mexican food, drank lots of beer, played some interesting drinking games, slept, saw a gold mine!! saw some glow worms and just generally had a blast

Tina - thanks love it was awesome!!!

So that skips forward to Sunday which sadly was leaving day for LL and JD, so sadly we said our goodbyes and made our way to the bus stop which for once was early and was waiting for us to go to Rotorua!!

We had intended on heading further down the coast to napier and hastings but we were unable to go direct so had to take the detour.
We made arrangements to stay at the Spa Backpackers which is fairly central in the town, we arrived around 1730hrs, and dumped the bags before heading out to the supermarket and to find food.

Luckily we found two supermarkets right across the road from our hostel - big supermarkets with plenty of choice for the first time since leaving the Bay of Plenty (Paihia)!!
we also found a place serving a roast beef dinner hehehe nice!!

We pretty, much have tried to plan some other stuff so have spent a fair amount of time on the internet (computamebob) over the last couple of nights (including tonight), we had to sort out the banks and cameras and stuff again.

So again this morning we woke up and called home (the 13hour time difference can be a b*tch sometimes), but also got the Leeds score this morning which was nice - cheers ma

The weather was pretty pants this morning so we had to test out our waterproofs for the first time, but i'd promised tina that i'd pay a cheque in and stuff. we went to the i-site to check out the Skyline Skyrides and make sure we could definately do the luge which we'd seen. It was awesome value 5 runs and the cable car return was $45NZ each and the local bus was $2.20NZ each way....and if we were gonna get wet we may as well have fun doing it!! and we did!!

Let's just say the chicken nuggets and chips (and english tea) we're much appreciated when we came in out of the rain!!

So we came back and headed back to the hostel which was just down the road from the bus stop, and messed around, read and just had a lazy afternoon - apparently Rome wasn't built in a day, and i think i've found way's to get over my impatience - over here at least.

We had beans on toast for dinner, with the customary melted cheese, and then went to the supermarket for more bread and beans hehe we like.

We've booked an evening at a Maori village for tomorrow night with a traditional meal (Hangi - Food cooked in an underground oven, which personally sounds like a way we used to cook some food in the scouts he-he).

And thats ya lot this time, not a huge amountto say, other than Laura says Hi!! Welcome to my old buddy Mark....oh and Kia Ora

Laters and enjoy the pictures.....

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