Blogs from Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 18

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga February 17th 2006

De sista dagarna i Nya Zeeland agnar vi i Tauranga som ar en liten kiwituristort. Vi tar sovmorgon och promenerar i staden samt tar en farja over till stranderna vid Mount Manganui (utdod vulkan) dar vi promererar mera och tittar pa surfare och badare. Pa indisk resturang ater vi Pers forsenade fodelsedagsmiddag och blir nastan buffe-matta. Den 19:e aker vi vidare till Auckland eftersom vi flyger darifran. Den dagen agnar vi en hel del tid at att tvatta taltpinnar och kangor, sa att vi blir inslappta i Australien. Vi gar ocksa en liten promenad pa kvallen och hittar ett riktigt trevligt hamnomrade ( paminner om BO-01) dar vi tar oss en ol och tittar pa folk och batar. Klockan 4.10 den 20:e hoppar vi pigga som mortar ur sangarna och tar flygbussen ut till flygplatsen. PS ... read more

Bring on the Hot Springs!!

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga December 11th 2005

Benji and Abby

Well, We made it off the farm in one piece, and we're grovin' down the highway at a remarkably slow pace.... Now don't worry, Roxy's doin' fine... we've just had to stop quite often to enjoy all the hot springs in the area. We left the farm on Saturday after a long day of squeezing fresh tangelo juice at the Whitianga farmer's market. With a liter of fresh juice in hand, we went back to Hot Water Beach in hopes of enjoying the hot pools that only come up during low tide. This was our second trip to this beach, and to little avail, once again, the pools didn't fully emerge. ( Though we did have a blast at sunset attempting to fight the oncoming waves by furiously digging for the hot water while building a ... read more

At Owen's

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga November 21st 2005

Napoleon

Last night I got into Tauranga and stayed at Owen's place. Today I took the van into a mechanic and had some basic things fixed that he thought might help. Spark plugs, air filter, fuel filter, etc. Unfortunately $200USD later it didnt help much. Tomorrow I will have an auto electric place check it out and plug in a scanner. I drove back to Owen's around 6 and arrived just in time for dinner. He has a very nice family. His dad used to work at the Tui Brewery in the mid 70's and he had an interesting view of the New Zealand Maori situation. After dinner we went to EZ video and rented 6 movies. Three of which I really wanted to see: Once Were Warriors, Donnie Darko, and Whale Rider. We watched the first ... read more

Beach with Janika

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga November 16th 2005

Napoleon

Today we woke up later and decided to go to a beach that was about an hour and some change away...... read more

Beach/Mt. Monganui

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga November 15th 2005

Napoleon

lots of hiking and walking today with Janika, it was a great day.... will add more later... read more

Into the crater

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga November 15th 2005

White Island

musosf

We've fallen into a comfortable rhythm of meeting up around 8am to grab a bite to eat, then hitting the road by 8:30 or 9:00. This morning in Whangamata, we went into town in search of some food and found a lovely corner bakery with mince pies, sweets and things to drink. The sun shone in a cloudless sky and we knew we were in for a gorgeous day. Rich had a hankering for eggs, so we decided to move on to a proper cafe but I noted the banana cake with chocolate frosting and decided to come back for "dessert" after our breakfast. The very-friendly proprietor of the bakery suggested we try a place called Whanga Bar around the corner, as many of the cafes hadn't yet opened for breakfast. What a great suggestion. We ... read more

Kiwifruit kapital

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga June 24th 2005

Yum

We've been staying in Tauranga (kiwi fruit picking country and back in the Bay of Plenty again) and really just chilling out and doing a little preparation for Australia. We've been out Mount Maunganui for some beach walks (but the hill itself is still closed following last month's washouts) and also managed to see "Batman Begins" (we don't usually rate superhero/comic book movies but any film that has the main protagonist menacingly declaring the famous line "I'm Bat-man" before headbutting his unlucky opponent it alright by us!). Tomorrow we drive to Auckland...... read more

Hobbit Set in New Zealand

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga February 7th 2005

Hobbit Set

Dick and Mary

Sorry we haven’t posted in a couple of days - New Zealand kept us busy! The visit to the Hobbit set from Lord of the Rings was lovely. Crystal Cruises provided this as a free treat for all guests, so attendance was heavy. We had half a dozen or so large buses that took us for the trip, over an hour from the urban area where we docked. Truth to tell, I was only vaguely aware that LOTR was filmed in NZ, but it’s a big deal here. Thanks to it, tourism is said to be overtaking food exports as their chief industry. The buses took us to a beautiful isolated area on a cattle farm with a little lake and the big “party tree” in the opening scenes of the first movie. Around this ... read more

Home Sweet Home

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga December 17th 2004

My mates!

gingerale

Tauranga Central Backpacker!!!!!! We were supposed to stay in that city a few days only but we've met so many great people! Thank you Tony and Aline for everything! We've met one of the funniest guy i've ever met.........Ben from Canada! Merci à Aline et Tony pour tout ce qu'ils ont fait pour nous! Tauranga, c'est un peu notre deuxième maison! C'est aussi ici qu'on a rencontré Ben, notre compagnon de voyage... enfin plus qu'un compagnon pour une certaine personne!!!!!!... read more

So we have left our 2nd home....

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Bay of Plenty » Tauranga October 23rd 2004

Drive up to Coromandel

Silver_Sheep

So, here we are sat back in the UK, 3 months after we left NZ after spending nearly 12 months there, i've got a tear in me eye!! ... it was such an amazing place and we met so many amazing people, we were really upset to be leaving and think about the things we experienced and the people we met all the time, we're always looking at our photo's remember what once was!! One of the reasons we liked it so much was because it was so far away from any other country that it has it's own uniqueness about it, it does take ideas from other countries but then puts a kiwi touch to it! Anyway I can't write any more as I am sooo upset about being here in the UK thinking about ... read more

Brief history of New Zealand

The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year...more history

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