Blogs from North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 1147

Tim is ill! We knew it would happen sooner or later but we thought it would be in Asia. It was only a matter of time before one of us got the lurgi! Tim has had some nasty stomach bug that came on yesterday lunchtime on our way to Ahipara. He seems a bit better now but we had to cancel our trip to Cape Regina today. On the plus side I got to go boogie boarding which was excellent fun. You could go on the beach which was right outside the hostel. They even lent you boards for free. It is not as easy as it looks but a got the hang of it. I left Tim on the beach with the camera to film and photograph me in action!... read more

Our bus to Rotorua is at 10:40 am so we get up, have breakfast and the lady at the motel takes us to the bus station. We arrive in Rotorua at the Information Center and I go in to see about a shuttle to the Kiwi Encounter. While we were in Taupo I picked up a brochure and we decided this would be the last time we would be able to see a kiwi. I get the information on the shuttle and we walk about six blocks to our motel. Rotorua is a natural thermal area much like Yellowstone Park and our motel has two small mineral pools. After the Tongariro Crossing we are pretty sore so we think we may get in them later. We walk back into the city and have lunch at the ... read more

Yesterday we spent almost completely on the bus. Shaheen and I did a heap of crosswords and even broke out the travel Chinese Checkers. It took us about 12 hours to get here because we hit some construction traffic on the road, so we didn't get to our hostel (World Wide Backpackers) until nearly 9pm. However, today was wonderful! Our best day in NZ thus far. We woke up early and ate our free breakfast. Then, after dropping by the ferry to reserve our tix for the next day, we walked around town for a while. We passed the Beehive and went up Lamdon Quay and then took the cable car up to the botanic gardens. We hiked around there all morning and it was beautiful - especially the rose garden and the begonias. After lunch, ... read more

So after the last blog turned into a 1000 page novel I decided the blog needed updating more frequently. Plus I need to keep all my devoted readers interested. Even though I'm probably just fooling myself thinking that I have devoted readers. Driving around New Zealand has been great, or should I say being chauffeured around as I do no driving...need to practice driving a manual transmission. I'm not complaining though being a passenger has it's benefits...get to enjoy the view. The roads in NZ are spectacular, there are no highways every road is one lane in each direction and there are endless "S" turns and switchbacks. Not to mention gravel roads, we must have driven 100+ km on gravel roads so far. Plus they don't like to build two lane bridges, they love one lane ... read more

Drove up to Bay of Islands, stopping to see the world famous toilets in Kawakawa. We stayed in a motel for 2 nights. Were greeted by some crazy guy who smelt of really bad BO, with a bird on his shoulder which had evidently been trained to shit down his back. The rooms were clean though. Looked around town, went to the beach and swam in the sea, had some dinner (really cheap and nice seafood) and a few drinks. Then headed off for Kayaking the following morning. It was fairly choppy with a good breeze blowing and intermittant sunshine. Apart from the impending doom when the rudder fell off and we couldn't steer it was good fun. Paddled round some islands for a few hours, sat on a beach for a bit, then headed back ... read more