Blogs from Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 19

So, firstly we have what can only be described as a rather interestingly named shop, not sure what to say really... Secondly we have the Spice Girls reunited, in New Zealand only!:o) Third pic is of Mike's femine side coming through, doing a bit of Maori(native New Zealanders) flax weaving. Flax grows widely around NZ, and the Maori's use it to weave all sorts of things from baskets to dress's! 4th pic is Moa the hostel cat, she has many personalities due to meeting so many people, friendly, but can be a vicious little thing if she's doesn't want to be stroked! 5th pic is of Sky Tower in Auckland, it is an amazing piece of engineering and looks pretty kool on the skyline, apparently it can with stand an earthquake of up to 6 ... read more

So here firstly we have Christina doing some kiwi fruit pruning, lovely work that it is, it can be neck, back and shoulder breaking, until you've done it for a few weeks and then you get used to it, kind of! Then secondly here we have Mike doing some Mandarine thinning, which again was lovely work in 26 degree sun, trying to avoid wasp nests and large nest of baby spider(none poisoness thankfully!:o), but all made the better for the nutty backpacker we work with! Thirdly here we have a rather thoughtfully named drink, after what has happened recently with this you would've thought they would have renamed the drink, but hey, this is New Zealand for you! The 4th picture is of Shu a Japanese backpacker, doing his fire dancing on a warm spring ... read more

Well, it's that time of year again, but this time we're somewhere hot! Man it feels soooo strange here in NZ, the sun is out, everyone is in short's 'n' t-shirt's and talking about having barbies on the beach for x-mas dinner ... it's sooo kool!:o) The kiwi's seem to have the same feeling about Christmas that most people do, except without the hampering for snow ... most of them complain if it isn't going to be over the 20's for the big day! However there are some of them that we have met that have the the same feelings about it that we do ... that it is an overhyped load of bull! ... some people argue until there blue in the face that it's a traditional thing, or religious blah blah blah, infact we ... read more

Well, where to start? Hmmmm.... We have posted in aaaages because we haven't had much to post about really, well not after our little excursing in dairy farming!!! Man what a bodge up that was, basically we lasted 3 days, we worked from 5am until 5pm each day on a farm with 600 cows that we as mismanagaed as you can get, the machinery on the farm was breaking down left right and centre and 3 people quit the farm whilst we were there!!! ... it didn't help that we didn't like being pissed and shat on by the cows as we milked them, not the most pleasing experience at 5am!!! Anyway...we left as quickly as possible and we've been in The Bay of Plenty for the last 3 months just working and checking out the ... read more