Jamie came round this morning just as I was getting fed up of job applications & we headed off to Howick Historical Village – A mixture of Maori & early European settler dwellings (mostly the latter) loosely based on the fencible village of Howick, the largest fencible settlement which together with Otahuhu, Onehunga & Panmure formed a chain to protect the young capital of Auckland from attack by either the Maori or the Frence. Fencible comes from defencible as in capable of defence, retired soldiers were offered free passage for themselves & their families, a cottage with an acre of land to become theirs after 7 years part time service. Many jumped at the chance, especially those Irish hit hard by the potato famine. In total 10 ships brought 2500 men, women & children to Auckland ... read more

This morning we left Whitianga & crossed the Coromandel Peninsula via the 309 Road stopping to see (& hug) the huge Kauri trees (... read more

Friday we headed north and east towards the Coromandel Peninsula with a stop off at Maungatautari Ecological Island reserve - a mountain that has been fenced off with a predator-proof fence & extensive predator removal inside has created a virtually predator-free reserve where native birdlife such as Kaka, Hihi & Kiwis can survive & breed. The have an observation tower & up the top we met a student studying the Kakas breeding in the reserve. We had a nice long chat about the joys of ecology fieldwork whilst the birds were being elusive! We stopped briefly in Putaruru & grabbed a couple of pies for lunch then again to go & peer at the McLaren Falls then up to Tauranga & the coast. We then headed up the coast to the Karangahake Gorge where we stayed ... read more

Wednesday we drove up to see Mount Taranaki - a lovely volcano standing by itself on the west coast. We stayed on a comparatively expensive farmstay near Hawera. Beautiful sunshine at the farm & we since it was only around 3pm we decided to pop up to the south part of the mountain & do a short walk or two. We were slightly worried whilst driving as we couldn't see the mountain, only cloud which turned into thick, low cloud as we got closer. Being British we didn't let this stop us & good thing too for as we entered the National Park we emerged into beautiful sunshine again! Most surreal! We went for a lovely circular walk around to see the Wilkies Pools & decided not to do the second short loop as we were ... read more

Upon leaving Nelson we decided to try some of the local wines since we were driving through some nice looking vinyards so we dropped into Vines Village & tried some Bouldevines (leaving with two bottles of a nice Pinot Noir that was 2 for $20) then down the road to Domaine Georges Michel to try some more & discovered a very palatable Pinot Noir rose! We also found some tasty venison pies for lunch before heading down the east coast to Kaikoura stopping off at Kekerengu where Julian nearly left his shirt on the beach! Lovely black sands there & I got to test my new hairband created from a find in the scraps box of the quiting shop at Vines Village! Other brief photo stops also occured along the coast which was well worth the ... read more