Blogs from North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 1230

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » East Coast » Napier December 11th 2003

The past three weeks of sailing were incredible! Veronica and I left the Alvei today and watching it sail off without us was like watching our house and family drift away. But the money has run out and it's time to work. I'll miss everything about sailing, including getting up at 4:00am for watch, eating Fritjof's "kerosene pie" (this was a veggie pie gone very wrong), the dolphins that swim along side the boat (at night they are just glowing outlines because of the bioluminescence in the water), listening to Jared (the first mate) tell stories about his tattoos and his jail time, singalongs and jamming out in the saloon. I won't miss weighing anchor actually. That's just a pain in the butt. The achor is a ton and the chain probably more than that. And ... read more

Great Barrier Island

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island November 26th 2003

Stormy Weather

Rachel of Oz

Such a beautiful place - I'm starting to entertain thoughts of moving to New Zealand permanently! We arrived here on the 23rd and I had to stay on the boat the first day for anchor watch. The second day a bunch of us went ashore and hitched a ride into "town" from someone, maybe he was a postman(?). He was a crazy driver though! All the roads here wind around the mountains, they don't have guardrails and they're only a lane and a half wide! He went zipping around the turns without a care in the world and I almost had a heart attack every time a car came in the opposite direction. Somehow we didn't hit any of them. At one point a sheep darted out in the road right in front of us! The ... read more

All About ALVEI

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island November 17th 2003

Roberton Island Lookout

Rachel of Oz

Alvei is a 40m long ship built in 1920s originally as a fishing boat and the captain rebuilt it into a sailing ship in the 80s adding three masts, the main being 30m tall. There are currently 12 crew members (room for 18) and our duties include steering, lookout, sail handling, anchor watch when we are in harbour, cooking, cleaning, and maintenance like painting, tarring. It's a bit like a commune, we all pitch in to make sure things run smoothly.... read more

So here we are AGAIN...

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga November 17th 2003

A view from the hostel...

Silver_Sheep

In Tauranga!!! Man it seems we cannot get away from this place!! So, off we went to Napier about 10 days ago. We got there, everything was kool with the hostel we stayed at, we got jobs doing apple tree thinning(cutting small or damaged apple's off etc) and we were going to stay for a month or so, but then we got a job offer to manage a hostel in Turangi which is just outside of Taupo, in the Middle of New Zealand, near the Tongariro crossing. So we decided that it would be a great opportunity to get some experience etc and off we went again, to Turangi! We got to the hostel (Bell Bird Lodge) on the Monday last week, and by the evening had negotiated a deal with the owners for free accommodation ... read more

Intro to New Zealand

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island November 16th 2003

Love at First Sight

Rachel of Oz

I stayed in Auckland for three days (which is too long really b/c it's not that special - it's kinda like North American cities but with some mild differences). I met some really nice people there - Mike and Adrienne from Wyoming, Jenny from Montana, and Veronica from Munich, Germany. The five of us hit it off so well and we were all tired of Auckland pretty fast so we decided to head North together to a cool little town called Paihia. It's really beautiful little town but there wasn't a lot of work so we decided to head further North to Kerikeri to look for fruit picking jobs. We booked the bus for today actually but I was getting kind of antsy about not working so I went to a bakery in Paihia to ask ... read more

Been a while....

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga November 6th 2003

Strike a pose...

Silver_Sheep

Well, where to start? Hmmmm.... We have posted in aaaages because we haven't had much to post about really, well not after our little excursing in dairy farming!!! Man what a bodge up that was, basically we lasted 3 days, we worked from 5am until 5pm each day on a farm with 600 cows that we as mismanagaed as you can get, the machinery on the farm was breaking down left right and centre and 3 people quit the farm whilst we were there!!! ... it didn't help that we didn't like being pissed and shat on by the cows as we milked them, not the most pleasing experience at 5am!!! Anyway...we left as quickly as possible and we've been in The Bay of Plenty for the last 3 months just working and checking out the ... read more

3rd Trip

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island August 27th 2003

onderweg 3rd trip

travel Robbie

Right-di-ho, here we go! In Auckland ontmoette ik 2 3rd cousins (denk daar maar eens over na; overigens moet er wel degelijk een spatie tussen de 2 en de 3!). Met Elsje zou ik mijn 3de trip gaan maken, en dat deden we ook. Soms moet je plannen herzien, maar in dit geval niet. Grappig hoor, een 3rd cousin ontmoeten aan de andere kant van de wereld, in dezelfde leeftijd, dezelfde achternaam en ook docent! We bleken het aardig met elkaar te kunnen vinden. Ach nee, aardig is te zwak uitgedrukt: we konden het behoorlijk aardig met elkaar vinden. Er valt niet zo heel veel over de trip te zeggen behalve nog maar een keer in herhaling vallen: een geweldige scenery! In een paar dagen tijd reisden we langs de oostkust naar Palmerston North waar een ... read more

Vervolg en 2nd trip

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island August 16th 2003

paardrijden

travel Robbie

Hi heat-wavers, De winter hier is erg anders dan het weer dat jullie hebben op dit moment hoor ik. De winters hier zijn trouwens vergelijkbaar met een wat koude Nederlandse zomer, al is het zuidereiland doorgaans wat kouder. Zoals ik schreef, ging ik helpen op de paardenboerderij. Ik heb voornamelijk op Hank gereden. Hank werd vroeger gebruikt voor het ophalen en drijven van koeien; een cowboypaard zeg maar. Afijn, Hank en ik leerden elkaar beter kennen tijdens de ritten die we maakten (de groeten van hem trouwens). Zodra de groep door een hek was gegaan, deed ik die achter ons dicht. Wat ik altijd al erg stoer vond, was het opstijgen van sommige cowboys in films. Dat wilde ik ook wel proberen natuurlijk. Ik wachtte even tot de groep wat verder weg was en ging naast ... read more

Just the Ducks Nuts....

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga August 12th 2003

Silver_Sheep

So, today is the 12th August and we have been here 2 weeks ... we are in Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty at the moment, right next to the beach, wicked!:o) Although it's supposed to be winter here it has been around 14c most of the time and lots of rain, not cold at all really! The downside of coming out here at the last minute is that we have only arrived with 1000 dollars! … yup that’s right, 1000 dollars, but we don’t care, we’re on working visas and want to work, it’s much different than we’ve ever done before so we are lapping it up at the moment!! We have got work kiwi pruning at the moment, and unless you can be speeded gonzalez then you can only earn around 10 pounds a ... read more

First trip

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Islands August 6th 2003

mijn 1ste auto ooit

travel Robbie

Hey gang, I got my set of wheels: a Mitshubitshi Lancer (1990) and a cell phone (number: 021 - 147 76 63). What more does a man want? Jawel vertrokken vanuit Auckland en op naar het verre noorden. Na ongeveer een half uur rijden nam ik een afslag naar een strand. Een geweldig uitzicht, zonnetje op m’n gezicht en U2 op de achtergrond. Ik reisde naar de Bay of Islands waar ik een vriend van mijn 2nd cousin (die ook Rob Maassen heet, haha) zou ontmoeten. Wat een GEWELDIGE OMGEVING waar ik doorheen reed zeg; uit de boekjes zeg maar! Af en toe gestopt voor een foto. In Paihia een backpacker geboekt en kennis gemaakt met mijn roommates; samen naar een BBQ gegaan ’s avonds. Ben vroeg naar bed gegaan, want… … Ik ging de volgende ... read more

Brief history of New Zealand

The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year...more history

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