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Published: March 8th 2007
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Genesis
Home until April 3rd! Hey there from New Zealand
Before I start I would like to introduce you to someone who is very important in mine and Gary's lives at the moment and that's the orange beauty on the front page, Genesis our Spaceship. Now before you think we were sad enough to name her ourselves, she already had the name and from pictures you should be able to see it for yourselves.
So we arrived in Auckland on Feb 28th and headed for our hostel, which was just off the main street of the city so not far from the hussle and bussle. It was a little strange coming from a place like Fiji to here though as it felt like coming back to reality or something, and guess what? we found a Wagamama! Yes we found it after going on a wander around the city where we also came across signs for the Lanntern Festival which was opening that night so we decided to splash out a bit and go out for dinner and then on to the festival. The food was gooood!!! as usual and even cheaper than the prices in England so even better. After dinner we headed up
to the Park which is where the Festival was being held, after stopping off for a quick photo session with tripod in tow to take some pics of the Sky Tower. The festival was a real event and all the lanterns were pretty impressive, however Gary seemed to be more impressed by the simpler lanterns as you'll see from the pictures. I have to admit, from a photographers perspective they did make beautiful pictures.
Anyway the next day we set about tracking down some transport for the next four or so weeks as we felt we wanted the freedom to do our own thing rather than being stuck on a bus tour (we're saving that for OZ). However as soon as we sat down at the tour desk and told the girl what we wanted to do, the first thing we were told is "You realise it's peak season so it'll be nearly impossible to get anything and it'll be really expensive" Uh..... not what we wanted to hear but after a few phone calls and some of the prices being ridiculous and nothing being available we both remembered this advert we'd seen for these people carriers which double
up as a camper so the girl at the tour desk gave them a call and as luck would have it, bingo! and that's how we met Genesis, our Toyota Lucida who will be our home for the next four weeks. She comes fully kitted out with mini fridge, gas stove, water supply, DVD player and free DVDs which we can swap at any Spaceship location and Hayley, I've finally seen 'Breakfast at Tiffany's" and I loved it. I was a little worried about the cat at one point but i'm glad to see it turned out all right.
So since we've had Genesis we've driven up to the Bay of Islands where we spent more time on the beach chilling and made our first attempt to go on a day cruise around the Islands but the day we chose to go it was raining so we decided to head up to Cape Reinga a day early and then come back for attempt number two. Cape Reinga is the most northern part of New Zealand and we went to see the lighthouse which is right at the edge of the Island. There are some really beautiful views there but
it takes a lot of really bad roads to get to it so a little hairy in Genesis but luckily she could handle it. Once we'd seen the lighthouse we decided to find ourselves somewhere to stay for the night, and as we had passed by the place we intended to stay on the way through and saw it was empty we decided to try somewhere else and luckily for us it was a much better choice as we were right on the beach and didn't have to pay (well that's a little inaccurate but we stayed for free anyway).
The next day we had a lot to do as we wanted to go Sand boarding at the Te Paki Sand dunes nearby and then drive all the way back to Paihia in the Bay of Islands via Waipoua Forest to see the widest tree in New Zealand (Te Matua Ngahere). Well we managed it and in pretty good time too and were tucked up in bed by a reasonable hour. The reason for heading back to Pahia was due to the fact we were going to attempt the cruise for a second time and guess what? we woke
Cape Reinga Lighthouse
Most northerly point in NZ up bright and early to catch the 0900 departure and...... it was raining.! Well it obviously wasn't meant to be.
So yesterday we made the 7 hour drive from Paihia to Rotorua where we will be spending the next couple of days. During that time we will be doing some more activities as we've planned to go Zorbing tomorrow as a Birthday treat for me (Yes for all of those of you who have forgotten, it's tomorrow!). Zorbing for all of you who wish to know is where they put you in a big inflatable hamster ball type thing and roll you down a big hill, water can also be thrown in to the zorb to get you all wet. Pictures will be added at a later date.
Well i've been left here to write this while Gary goes off to do some last minute birthday shopping but I guess he'll probably be done by now so i'll say goodbye for now and we'll be adding another entry in about a week or so, so stay tuned.
V & G
x x
ps. I'm expecting lots of birthday messages posted on here tomorrow so thanks in
All alone!
The beach outside our camping spot at Cape Reinga. advance.
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Claire Rogers
non-member comment
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday verity!! have a lovely day cant wait to see the pics of you in the hampster ball !! well have fun and hope you get lots of lovely prezzies xxx