Blogs from Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 6

- As I'm running a bit behind with my blogs, there will be another one very soon! - You may or may not remember this from one of my first blogs, but the bus drivers from Stray all have nicknames. Passengers never know their real name, so we all resort to calling them Happy, Pacman and Romeoo, for instance. After Queenstown, Kookie took us to Mount Cook, where we did some amazing walks and saw icebergs! Not only did he take us there, but afterwards he took us to the factory shop of Cookie Time. Granted, he got his name for being a chef rather than a major cookie lover, but I still thought it was all a funny combination. After the Cookie Time factory, I was back in Christchurch. To get to the North Island, ... read more

A bit of a wander round the Princes Wharf area (where our accommodation is). Quiet day as the long travels in recent days have caught up with us a bit. Off to another island tomorrow!!... read more

Well, it's time to wrap the account of this bike trip. It’s now two weeks since it ended, and we're about to head back to the UK after visiting our Australian friends. I wrote this entry whilst sat outside at a street-side café in Mosman, a cute suburb of Sydney, waiting for Pam and Helen to re-appear from a beauty parlour where unmentionable atrocities are being performed by undercover Vietnamese shock troops armed with wax and cuticle knives. Let me explain how I got here from the Green Dragon. We left Hobbiton (which is near Matamata incidentally) bound for Whitianga. We initially had trouble identifying this place on the map following a verbal briefing from John, since “wh” is approximately pronounced as “f” in the Maori language. It’s a seaside resort on Mercury Bay, halfway up ... read more

Day 4: Parekai Springs to Hanua, 120 or so km, more like 140 with all the wrong turns the Donkey took Today was a sad day for both Showponey and the Donkey. Showpony was once again poorly overnight and the two friends agreed that it was not a good idea for Showpony to carry on so the Donkey was suddenly by himself. He panicked as now he had to do all the thinking. Showpony had done most of it till then; he had covered all eventualities including potential calamities some of which had come true. And today was just the day the Donkey needed Showpony more than ever as he had to navigate through Auckland, the biggest city of New Zealand, and it is well known that navigation is not one of a donkey's strengths, in ... read more

A long day for the Donkey The next morning Showpony and the Donkey awoke to a beautiful day, well suited for biking except for the fact that first they had to get from Auckland to the Cape, a distance of 420km so that was going to take the best part of the day. Showpony and the Donkey biked to the assembly point, just down the road from their hotel, where they met other, like-minded animals, all getting ready for the Tour Aotearoa. There were plenty of donkeys, some horses, a single cat, some kunekune pigs, three large ducks, a flock of sheep, a few shy deer and an Italian goat, and a whole lot of other species but Showpony was the only show pony. The Donkey eyed them all up and informed his friend not to ... read more