Blogs from North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 1145

Friday morning myself, Laura and Yvette (two Spanish girls that live at the hostel on Waiheke) left Waiheke for the weekend and headed to Piha, a small surf town about an hour west of Auckland on the Tasman sea. We rented a car and took our shitty map and headed for Piha. First let me introduce and navigators; Laura who speaks zero English and Yvette who speaks very little English. Second they drive on the left onside of the road in New Zealand. In hindsight I should have looked at the map before leaving Auckland, but it was much more exciting letting two girls who can't read English lead the way. We drove about an hour north which didn't make a lot of sense since Piha is west of Auckland, at this point directions to turn ... read more

After four sea days with large swells and a broken oil pipe, Voyager finally reaches Auckland in the late afternoon (about six hours late). With the sun shining on city buildings in the distance and blue water sparkling around us, our sail into port is a memorable one. As usual, Captain Dag has picked an appropriate song to play over the loudspeaker, announcing our arrival. No wonder they call this the “City of Sails.” Auckalnders certainly love their boats…sailboats, motorboats, all kinds of boats. They are everywhere, sailing beside us, in front of us and around us. Some look like they have trouble getting out of our way and several times the Captain has to blow the ship’s horn. This is a three day holiday in the Auckland area and it seems that the entire city ... read more

We are now in Auckland. When I said Tim was feeling a bit better I was wrong! I think it was the quiet before the storm. It was definitely the quiet before the day from hell! It turns out that he has campylobacter! It is some type of bacterial infection that can be caused by eating contaminated food or water, or eating raw meat. As far as we are aware Tim did none of those things but apparently it is rife in this area and it is probably just related to poor food hygiene such as using something that was not washed up properly. We know all this as Tim went to the doctors. Under normal circumstances this would have not been particularly troublesome apart from the fact that the nearest doctors was at the hospital ... read more

The first stop of the tour of the north island was to visit the BAy of Islands. Wanting the fast AND scenic option jill insisted on the 40knots powerboat option. ... read more

Howdy all! Just thought we should let you all know what we've been up too lately - - - - apart from being wonderfully lazy, reading on the beach! Here is where we have been since last time...... We made it too Opatiki, where the Pacafic Ocean was blue and calm, the sun hot and barmy. This was a happy change from the churning and rugged west coast at New Plymouth. After lazing there for a while we journeyed up the coast to Papamoa and surfed next to the mile after mile of blond sand, in metre high waves and under blue sky. Whilst there we explored several "Pa" (which are the equvilent of our stone age hill forts, yet only a few centuries old dating from the 18th and 19th centuries and maori civilisation), had ... read more