Blogs from Paihia, Bay of Islands, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 9

We are up at around 08:00, it is another gloriously sunny day.We packed an overnight bag and packing an overnight bag ready for our visit to the Bay of Islands and have breakfast. We had planned to set off at 10:00, but it was more like 11:00 when we set off on the SH1 heading north.We head in the direction of Whangerei (pronounced Fangerei in Maori- a bit like the doric at home in Aberdeen!). We stop off at "Hundterwassers Loo" on the way. These are public toilets in Kawakawa that were designed by an Austrian born artist and ecoarchitect Friedensreich Hundterwasser. These are the most photographed loo's in New Zealand. Lots of wavy lines decorated in mosaics and brightly covered bottles - bizarre!. We carry on for a while longer before stopping at Waipu (Pronounced ... read more

If I thought I was drinking too much in Auckland it was nothing compared to the Bay of Islands. This was the place I met Andreas and Charlie (the Swedes). Travelling on the bus, I look to my right and see Andreas taking a few swigs from his Whiskey bottle. I knew these two days were going to be tough. On the trip we stopped off at Goat Island and took a see through floor boat around to take a look at the local sealife which was fun, but lasted 45 minutes which was too long. It was free as it was part of the bus pass. I must admit I didn’t do much at all in the Bay of Islands. First night I got drunk and the following day I just sat on the beach ... read more

I have definitely hurt my collarbone. The whole top of my shoulder is swollen and tender to the touch, and the area around the pin has a ring of bright red blisters that I immediately dubbed "The Vampire's Kiss." I've never seen blisters like that before, but then I've never had an injury exactly like this before. There were no hard jolts, only twenty minutes of smallish jolts just hard enough to hurt. It's a steel plate; it's a steel pin. The effect of the jolting was like hitting myself with a steel-headed hammer for twenty minutes. It's not surprising that my shoulder is so badly bruised. I am frankly afraid of how much the trip to Auckland may hurt, to say nothing of the trip back home, especially the three days on Amtrak. But I ... read more

Note: Before going any further with this blog, I must let everyone know that we are no where near Christchurch and the earthquake. We are on the north island and perfectly safe. So please don’t worry about us. New Zealand Feb 18.. Auckland Can hardly believe we are finally here. Any of you who know me will know that New Zealand has always been one of my target destinations. In fact, this whole trip started with my talking about one day visiting this country…and we are finally here. What do we do on our first day? We spend over 3 hours getting through airports and another 3 in the air. By the time we get to our hostel it is time to find food and sleep. We will spend 2 nights here so we can spend ... read more

I was really excited when mum told me that we were going to try and swim with the dolphins. The Bay of islands is in the very north of the North Island in NewZealand and is famous for the dolphins that live there. There are over 400 named dolphins that live just in the bays off Paihai and Russell. We were going to go and try and swim with them and then take a speed boat out to a place called the hole in the wall. There are lots of rules about how and when you can swim with the dolphins. For example it is illegal to swim with dolphins if there are baby dolphins or Juvenile dolphins in the pod. Also we can only swim with them if it looks like they want to play ... read more