Blogs from Oceania - page 6641

Arrived in Roturua to be greeted by a smell of eggs due to geothermal activity - or was that just Rob after too many protein bars? Great Youth hostel with own huge natural spa pool. Met 14 people in from ireland in there and we compared notes on trips etc. meant to go out after a steak supper and short kip but both had a short kip till 9.00 am! Luging in the morning. Well this was an experience - already done before but nothing can compare to seeing Rob flying though the air while he was trying to catch us up - Coming down a huge slope which those whove done it before will know theres a very tight bend which i did warn him but no. Through the none existent barracades/ crashed over the ... read more

We get up early and take a taxi to the bus station. We are down to one bag each and our backpacks. It is late afternoon when we arrive in Paihia. It has been a rainy day and we feel really lucky that the weather was good for our excursion to Rangitoto. The bus driver drops us very close to our hotel, which is a few blocks from the pier and restaurants. Lucky again! We go in to eat, pick up some tourist brochures and come back to our hotel with a bottle of wine. It is still rainy. ... read more

Hello from Christchurch Thought id drop you all a line let you know that the conference went well. Thus far - nothing has been quite what i had envisaged, however i am having a great time (and getting some work done on the thesis - amazing). We hired a car and drove from Christchurch - Dunedin, the scenery was quite flat (not the mountainous areas you picture when you think NZ). We saw a suprising number of cows - seems the industry is trying to make a shift from the sheep (possibly related to bad press). The coastline is beautiful and its amazing to look to the left with rolling green hills and sheep, then to the right with long narrow beaches, mild waves and every shade of blue and green there is. There have been ... read more

We like Auckland much better than the brief first visit we had a few years ago. It is a very vibrant city on a beautiful harbor. We have spent several days exploring the city and getting information. We took a ferry across the harbor for our first over night hike. We hiked to the summit of Rangitoto Island, which was formed by a volcano 600 years ago. Then across a causeway to Motutapu Island were we camped out overlooking Home Bay. There were only two other tents within site on the island. Hike to the summit was strenuous but rewarding with views back across the harbor to Auckland. We took the Coastal Track on the way back to the ferry. It is a misleading name. It was mostly a rough hike through lava fields and only ... read more

Its been only 5 mins since we last sent you an entry but we thought we'd take the opportunity to wrap up the South Island ... We finished up in Nelson (nice little art gallery) before heading down the coast to some of the remote parts of Marlboro Sound - Okiwi Bay, Duncan Bay, Penzance etc. All really beautiful and slow moving pace of life. Water was so clear but still a littleto chilly to have a dip - Matt desperately wants to .... From there we ventured to Havelock, the world capital for green lipped mussels!!! Oh yes i hear you say, a very prestiguos place indeed. We sampled some at Mussel Boys were the waiters are all skantlky clad young men ... only kidding! We stuffed ourselves to the gills and Philpa almost burst! ... read more

We crossed from the South Island just over a week ago. The weather was great and the crossing was bouncy but good (well, at least compared to the majority of the time). Managed it fine but Philpa wont be going for a career at sea!!! Wellington was cool. First big city ... first time we had seen buildings more than 2 stories tall for some time and more than a single lane of traffic! We went to Te Papa, great national museum, but to knackering as we tried to plough round it in a day. Did the culture thing whilst there, you know galleries, parliament buildings, cayhedrals etc. Also went to Mount Victoria lookout (views over surroundings), a great protected park where lots of endangered bird species can roam safely (kiwis etc) and for a trip ... read more