Blogs from Paihia, Bay of Islands, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 14

Day 70: Friday, February 5th, 2010 Auckland, New Zealand to Paihia, New Zealand. Per the Contiki Brochure: "Today will be the day awesome scenery, great fun and extreme adventure take on new meanings! Meet your Contiki crew and view the beauty of Auckland's famous harbor as we cross the Auckland Harbor Bridge. Heading towards the subtropical region of Northland, we'll explore Parry Kauri Park before checking into our Resort in Paihia. In the evening get to know your fellow travelers during dinner." I'm to meet up with the Contiki group at the Mercure Hotel today. The brochure says we depart at Noon so I'm assuming I need to get there before Noon to fill out forms and what not. I'm all twitchy and ready to get going so I leave my hotel at 10:30am and start ... read more

So, an older brother grew up and moved out before I hit teenage years, and then decided to move to the ‘northern depths’ of Norwich, and appeared once a year for the obligatory Christmas visit. About ten years later, one sister arrives in New Zealand, and almost instantaneously receives a mail to say said brother has booked flights to come see (her in) NZ. Whatever the reason behind the flights, said brother has since arrived, travelled, conquered and left again for the now, I believe, defrosted UK. To start, we had previously booked Big Day Out tickets for Auckland. Now this is a one day music festival, which the locals rave about being a hardcore festival, mainly for the young and brave, so we buy tickets. Now, the Auckland date is held at Mount Smart Stadium, ... read more

So here I am in the Bay of Islands, and it is absolutely chucking it down with rain. The last two days have been spent toodling around Auckland, hanging out with the guys from the hostel. There were three: John, an American (who replaced Art the American); Lorry, the Finnish Viking (his life plan is to go home and build a house and then he will find a wife); Edouard the Frenchman (otherwise known as Little Frog). We had loads of fun hanging out together, and found this great pub where they had live music. The weather was terrible yesterday so I didn't do much at all apart from pack and sleep. All this travelling is EXHAUSTING. The weather was terrible again today, I took the Kiwi Experience coach up here. Have met a nice Irish ... read more

North Island - Part 1 We kicked off to a less than perfect start in New Zealand. It's funny how Qantas can say your baggage has been “lost” even though they themselves knowingly left it on the tarmac at Sydney! During the 3 days we had to wait we hired a car and spent some time exploring the city. Auckland itself isn't all that stylish and there isn't an abundance of greenery or parks in the city centre, but it's a practical place, and good for shopping, rather than sight-seeing. The coastal scenery and islands around Auckland are beautiful. Our 6 week camping adventure started east of Auckland in the Coromandel Peninsula. The peninsula has all the best bits of New Zealand rolled into a small area. It's got mountains and forests, surrounded by powder ... read more

Hello from Aotearoa - the land of the long white cloud! As you can see I am now in New Zealand's North Island. I haven't had a chance or the time to update the blog, it's not easy to get access to the internet staying in hostels. Well, NZ has been an interesting trip for me so far. I arrived in Auckland on the 5th - another time zone to get my head around, I am now 11 hours ahead! It was not nice leaving Frances, Derek and the kids! So I decided to treat myself to a nice hotel for a couple of days so that I could organise my bus trip and hostels. (Mel, thanks for the website). Unfortunately the morning I was due to leave for my first leg up to the Bay ... read more