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Published: January 21st 2009
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I know it's been a long time but better late than never hey?!
This blog pretty much covers from Christmas to now, others we will update very soon!
We found ourselves a really nice place to camp on Christmas eve, right next to the beach, and when we woke up on Christmas morning, the sun was shining - what more could we have asked for?! We had breakfast of pancakes and fruit on the beach and then opened our presents from under the homemade tree! We'd set ourselves budgets of $15 for the presents, but it's amazing what you can get from the $2 shop!!! I got Ian Christmas on the beach (bucket and spade, beach towel, a kite, a rubber ring, a puzzle book and some beers) and I got a stocking (a little christmas pud, a jigsaw puzzle, a game, a christmas decoration, a scratchcard....though I didn't win any money!). We spent the morning on the beach making a sandcastle, Ian trying to fly his kite and I did my 25 piece barbie jigsaw puzzle about 10 times!! Then it was lunch time!! We had a small banquet of pork (couldn't find turkey steaks!), pigs in blankets,
stuffing, sweetcorn and kumara (local sweet potato), and then strawberry and kiwi pavlova, and some local beer and sparkling wine obviouosly! It was amazing!!! It was late afternoon before we knew it and before we both fell asleep on the beach we decided to get our rubber rings and get in the sea!!! So basically, we spent the day on the beach, eating and drinking!!
We headed back to Auckland on boxing day as we'd booked to see the cricket (NZ Vs WIndies 20/20). It was boiling hot, and despite being under cover we weren't in the shade for too long as the sun got lower. It was a really good game with the WIndies needing 2 runs off the last ball to win - they got one so it was a draw. Then it was the 'one over eliminator' and I've never seen so many 6's. The WIndies won, but only just!
Again, we decided to spend New Years at the beach. At the place we went to there were local families, hardcore European nudists and a lot of gay men! A very random mix of people I think you'll agree! We had a bit of rain
early in the evening but luckily that passed and we went round to the gay party bus for about 11 and saw in the new year there - random but fun! The next day wasn't so fun, I'm sure a hangover in the heat is worse than any other hangover!
We were then starting our trip of Northland (the northern tip of North Island), and up in Russel we decided to do a sailing course so we spent 2 days on a course, and then 3 days sailing by ourselves around the Bay of Islands! The weather was a little too hot and we both ended up burning our lips (we looked like Pete Burns and Leslie Ash!), and some mornings there wasn't quite enough wind but other than that it was perfect. Our first day on our own, it took us a little while to get going (we couldn't get the main sail up!) but finally we did it and we were off, we made it to Roberton Island (our lunchtime destination) by 3:30, anchored up, jumped into the sea to cool down, had lunch and then rowed onto shore - living the dream!! That evening, we anchored
up in another bay (sheltered form the forecasted Easterly winds), and Ian did a spot of fishing, but unfortunately dropped his handline in the sea, and after rowing around to get it, fell out of the rowing boat, completely filling it with water - I haven't laughed so much in ages!!!
The second day was a little more successful with the sailing, we'd definitely got better, knowing when to tack and gibe (are you impressed with our knowledge of sailing terms!!). We had really relaxing day, sailing, drinking beer, swimming, and also, that evening Ian caught a snapper! The next morning we rowed to the bay where we'd stayed and saw a couple net fishing, who then invited us to their yacht to try some of the piper they'd caught (I think we call it whiting). We had a cup of coffee and some christmas cake and mince pies and then some fish (which was really good) then they showed us how to clean it up and gave us loads for our tea, so that evening, we had a big fish supper with the snapper and the piper! On our journey back to the docks we were lucky enough
to spot a few dolphons in the distance so we sailed towards them and had dolphins jumping around our boat - it was amazing!
After the sailing we visited Waitangi, where the treaty was signed between the Maori Chiefs and the UK, effectively establishing New Zealand as the country it is today, and we had a go at some flax weaving (flax is a big plant used for weaving), I made a flower while Ian made a headband! Afterwards we continued north and camped in a kiwi protection zone. We spoke to the camp caretaker who told us all the tips for spotting a kiwi and once it was dark we went out to try our luck at seeing a kiwi in the wild. We saw a little baby one, probably about four weeks old. Our first kiwi in the wild!
Next we headed further North to Cape Reinga via 90 mile beach, which is a long stretch of beach (which is more like 90 km's), which you can drive along, which we did, stopping for Ian to collect pipi's for lunch!! At Cape Reinga there are giant sand dunes where we tried our hand at sandboarding -
lying headfirst on a body board and sliding down the sand dune ( a bit like sledging but without the snow). It was really good fun (watching Ian fall off!) apart from the heat and having to climb up the sand dunes!
It was then time to slowly make our way back down to Auckland, stopping off at Waupoua Kauri Forest - one of the few pockets of ancient kauri trees left in New Zealand - where we saw the largest kauri tree in the world, known to Maori people as the God of the forest and as responsible for all life on earth. We camped fairly nearby in another kiwi protection zone and saw our second kiwi in the wild!
Back in Auckland we started to think about getting ready to leave New Zealand and head to Thailand but Ian still found time to have a little go at paragliding - a one day introductory course where he learned to fly by himself.
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