Blogs from Bay of Islands, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 72

Woke up this morning in torrential rain, which unrelented for the whole day, not a great start...Had planned to go up 90 mile beach to Cape Reinga, but in the rain, all beaches look the same...So instead we walked through a rainforest of kauri trees - the second biggest in the wold after sequoias - and the only two things missing in this dark rain-drenched jungle were pythons and crocodiles, not that we're complaining...The kauri are mighty elegant trees that climb straight up and have huge trunks, very impressive, see the photos. The big plus of it pissing it down is that noone was bothering us!;-) We then moved to Ngawha hot springs upon the recommendation of a local info office and what a find! Ah the joy of sitting in hot mud when the rain's ... read more

Whew, time to catch up! Here's a bit about what I did a while back. To see more pictures (there's some good ones I promise), go to my clubphoto album. Leah and I left Auckland on Friday afternoon for Bay of Island and Northland, the north tip of the North Island. We’d rented a tiny Toyota Starlet from a place called “Alternative Rentals” (one of the few places that rents to under-21s) and, after a few wrong turns, were on our way out of town. It was my first experience driving on the left side of the road on a major highway (I had a little practice the weekend before), but somehow convinced Leah that she was in good hands. We made our way up the east coast of the northern tip of the North Island. ... read more

We arrived in Auckland yesterday afternoon and were pretty tired after the journey but decided to take it in turns to drive and power nap as we travelled north. We started reasonably early today and travelled as far as Waipoura forest to see the Kauri trees. We both reacted in a very similar way when we saw the first really big tree (it sounds a bit funny to say that we were amazed by some trees but wow!) From there we travelled east across the country to the Bay of Islands. It was really pretty but not as spectacular as we expected. We took out a kayak for 2 hours and went for a quick trip around some of the islands. It was pretty windy so the waves were harder work than we would have liked. ... read more

We get up early and take a taxi to the bus station. We are down to one bag each and our backpacks. It is late afternoon when we arrive in Paihia. It has been a rainy day and we feel really lucky that the weather was good for our excursion to Rangitoto. The bus driver drops us very close to our hotel, which is a few blocks from the pier and restaurants. Lucky again! We go in to eat, pick up some tourist brochures and come back to our hotel with a bottle of wine. It is still rainy. ... read more

- FOOD: A bit of pub grub but otherwise, heated up soup on our gas stove. - PEOPLE: Chatty ferry man to Russell Island, hardly anyone else on Russell Island, mad fisherman at Ninety Mile Beach. - AREA: Beautiful bays and waterfall on the way to the Bay of Islands. NZ's oldest church (so very modern!) on the pretty (and deserted) Russell Island. Ninety Mile Beach - just us and another Escape van ignoring the 'No Camping' signs. - WEATHER: Had been nice until we arrived and it rained. Mon 1st August: We left the nice lifestyle to get back in the campervan for Bay of Islands. On the way we made a brief stop at Whangarei Falls - cute little waterfalls and then carried on up the gorgeous coast line, stopping at Nganguru, Tutukaka and ... read more