Blogs from Tauranga, Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

Day 5 Decided to stay all day at Bayview Wairakei Hotel. First strolled around the grounds, and discovered the large pool fed from a natural hot spring. Enjoyed swimming at 35 degrees, like a huge bath... Later there was a rugby debate with guest speakers Sam Warburton and Shaun Edwards, who entertainingly answered our (not too) searching questions and were willing victims for photos and signing anything to hand. With our winning tips success should surely follow... Day 6 Another coach transfer with our driver Len, always full of stories, this time off to Auckland. Checked into the hotel on the Quay, and then off into town. My "research" yielded another bar that brews beer-and some lunch, and then we went up the Sky Tower. Helen is not to keen on heights but was lured ... read more

Hello everyone. We have had a lovely last two days here at Mount. Following the rainy day we woke to sunshine again – a bit of luck as it had been forecast for rubbish weather. So back to glorious sunshine with lashings of suntan cream factor 30 being used by me and Suz. After a brekki of “mum’s” poached eggs and a bit of lazing about food supplies were running low and as we were expecting visitors we went off to the local NewWorld supermarket to stock up…and to the veg stall down the road $5 ( £2.50) for a bag of 10 sweetcorn. …cheap as chips. Having been a bit bemused by the signs which said “stonefruit $5 a bag”I was wondering what a “stonefruit” was…but then my clever daughter looked at me as if ... read more

Still in Papamoa. Just wanted to add another entry to keep in the swing of it. We went to Auckland not long ago for Chases 18th, had a wee party and messed about in the pool. Luke went golfing and did a days work building a floor. It was gorgeus weather the whole time so we spent alot of it messing around in the pool and playing guitar and singing and stuff. Good times. Back in Paps now and we had a day to ourselves, tidied the house and Lukes cousin Daniel comes down with about 20 people for a party. They definetly ticked all the boxes for a party, every dish in the house used, spillages, someone got injured and lost alot of blood, lots of varied music and a standard massive fry up ... read more

So still in Paps waiting on our flights to Australia, we're thinking of going to Sydney instead of Perth now because Perth is quite far out the way. Don't really know what we're doing. But that's the future and i can't write about that yet so where did i leave it? Yeah so i was living in Christchurch and working in a little bar that i pretty much cleaned 65 hours a week because there were very little customers. I did like it there though :) The earthquake was a big eye opener for me. When it was happening i didn't immidiatly think it was an earthquake, i thought something supernatural was happening, lol so stupid but then i thought the house was faling over. Then it stopped after like a full minute and alarms went ... read more

Last Friday was my last day at the Apata pack house and Thursday I will be leaving Tauranga with Anne, a Malaysian girl at the hostel who was also working at Apata and is looking to get to Wellington. We’re going to head up north to the Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel Peninsula first, before going to Lake Taupo. I thought it would be a good idea to do it now as I’m not sure if I’ll be on the eastern side of the North Island again, though the timing may be a little unfortunate as it will still be part of school holidays for the kids here so we may find the beach a little crowded when we get there. We had a barbeque this past weekend as an early farewell for me and ... read more