Day 8 2/22 Friday Hawera Visited Lloyd and Anita Burke at their farm. Leaned a lot about dairy farming in NZ. It is very different than the US. The cows stay outside all the time and are rotated through different pastures. We went to a race that Burke's daughter was doing with here friend Toni. There is also some pictures of the grandchildren. Right outside our bedroom was Mt. Tarnaki. We stopped at a possum tannery. Juanita bought a beautiful Merino wool wrap. Lloyd bought Anita a possum skin purse. Possums are a real pest in NZ and the tannery are making good use of them. ... read more

Took our time driving from Whangarei to Auckland. Spent a few more hours in our favorite beach town of Orewa. It is just beautiful and had a bunch of windsurfers. It is amazing how fast they go. ... read more

Day 4 Russell (Monday 2/18) We drove the back road (Coastal Road) from Wangarei to Russell. Stopped for a picnic and really enjoyed the lovely coastline. We must have gone over 30 one lane bridges. Russell is where the first whites settled. It overlooks the Bay of Islands. Personally I have mixed feeling about Russell. It is beautiful but basically your tourist town. I found the small fishing towns on the drive up much more interesting. We took the main road back to Wangarei but first had to take a Ferry to get to the main road. It was probably a 5 hour trip and I am finding that Juanita’s energy level is about 4 hours. I guess it is time to make some adjustments. We made a nice supper in the Motel room and watched ... read more

Day 2-Coromandel Adventures (Sat. 2/16) We headed south of Auckland on #1 and then east to the Coromandel Peninsula with no idea of what we might find. What we found was a 100 miles of some of the most beautiful landscapes we have ever seen. The Coromandel Peninsula is not really pushed in the travel propaganda. I think the Kiwis just decided to keep it to themselves. The drive from Thames to Coromandel up the west coast was just stunningly beautiful. Near Coromandel we ran into a bike rally and the hills were almost straight up. The bikes were having a hard time making it up the hills and our little rice burner barely made it. They were also having a motorcycle rally in Coromandel. There must have been 500 motorbikes in town. Evidently the narrow ... read more

Jim & Juanita Collins. We are from Richfield, Minnesota, USA. We are going to NZ on Feb. 13, 2008.We will return from NZ on April 9, 2007. The picture is of our youngest daughter Colleen, our granddaughter Elizabeth and I guess our other grandchild "Louie Louie". One thing I found a bit strange is that we miss Valentine's Day. We leave about 2 PM on Feb. 13, fly to Los Angels and leave LA at 8 PM for a 12 hour flight to Auckland. We arrive in Auckland about 7 AM on Feb. 15, completely skipping Feb. 14. We will be visiting some NZ friends who have stayed with us through Friendship Force. One set of friends live near Mt. Taranaka. The other near Wellington. The friend from the Wellington area is taking us on a ... read more