Blogs from Bay of Islands, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 13

So, after a brief stay in Auckland, we decided to head out of the city and go exploring. Whilst in NZ, we wanted to have very little in the way of plans and so decided to pretty much wing it and see what happened. After looking at several of the billion maps and flyers we seemed to have accumulated, we decided that we would head North up the east coast towards Northland until we eventually got to the tip of the North island. That was our first basic outline of a plan, and after having a pleasant breakfast overlooking the beach in Takapuna, we set off up the east coast. Not long after we left the Auckland area, the roads started to get smaller and the traffic was almost non-existent. Being here in winter was going ... read more

This past weekend I took a mini trip up north to Paihia, Bay of Islands with a friend. When we left we didn't have anything planned, just ideas of things we would like to do. It was more of a relaxing getting away so we didn't want to have to follow a schedule. We took the Naked Bus to get there which took almost four hours. Once we got there we ate at a cute little restaurant called Titos and then basically went to bed because it was late. The next morning we walked along the beach and explored a little bit on the rocks as we decided what we wanted to do for the day. Then we took the ferry to Russell which was a cute little town right by Paihia. We walked and saw ... read more

28th April ’12 On to Paihia, The Bay of Islands I was kind of sad to be leaving Rotoroa as I had really enjoyed my time there. Today was just spent travelling and it took us about 6 hours to get up to Pihai in the Northland. Once we got near the Bay of Islands and into Pihai we were in lovely coastal scenery with lots of little islands and sheltered coves. After checking into our motel – The Dolphin which we chose as it was within a few minutes walk of the shops and harbour (it could not be described as a town) and was also offering a 3 nights for the price of 2 deal which was a bargin! We had a look around the handful of souvenir shops, a few eating places, the ... read more

After a great week in Auckland we decided to book ourselves onto a bus to travel 3 hours North of Auckland to the bay of islands which is a collection of over 100 different sized islands and bays. We had also bought a discounted coupon online (similar to groupon) that entitled us to a half price 16,000ft skydive at the Sky Dive Zone centre in the bay of islands. We caught the bus on the morning of Tuesday 10th to Paihia, when we arrived the weather was great and we spent the afternoon exploring the town and some of the coastline. Our skydive was booked for the next day but when we woke up the weather wasn't great and it only got worse throughout the day, we had to reschedule for the day after (Thursday 12th). ... read more

We gingen vanuit KawaKawa naar Keri Keri. De namen van de stadjes hier zijn soms echt hilarisch! Keri Keri is het noordelijkste stadje van het Noordereiland. Vanaf daar begint de weg naar 90 miles beach (90 mijlen strand) Cape Reinga. We besloten Cape Reinga niet te doen omdat we kort in tijd waren. We hadden afgesproken om naar Leigh (Goat Island) te gaan een paar dagen later. We reden wat rond en voor dat ik het wist stond ik met Jan in de 'Living Nature' winkel. Jan had de vlag zien wapperen waar er op stond 'Living Nature, 100% natural skincare'. En inderdaad ik kreeg een zalfje. Dat merk bestaat al 35 jaar en wordt verdeeld over de ganse wereld met een zuster afdeling in Duitsland. De verkoopster ging iemand halen en 2 seconden later stonden ... read more