Blogs from Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 11

Mount Maunganui op een stormdag.... read more

Day 2 of “Chill-out” Up at around 07:00 and breakfast at around 09:00 We then went for a walk along the beach, and introduce Di to my new friends the Seabirds. We got back about 12ish and even though it was not long since breakfast, we were both famished, So we had a Cheese and Ham Salad. We then spent the afternoon sunbathing and went to a local bar at around 16:30 and picked up a Chinese take away, which we ate outside the camper van. We got the beds assembled by 20:00, we intend to have an early night at make an early start tomorrow as we are moving on to Rotorua ... read more

27th February – late on Saturday evening there was a violent thunder storm in the area with some heavy rain and a spectacular lightning display. But on the Sunday morning it was dry again. We had decided to explore the coastline a bit so set off towards Opotiki about 45 kilometers away. We were in no hurry and stopped a couple of times by beaches where the sea was a stunning colour. People were fishing, some were jogging or walking, a couple were surfing and one or two swimming. But the length of the beaches made it seem as though they were virtually deserted. At each location we had a splendid view of White Island and, perhaps because of the rain during the night, the volcano was giving off a huge plume of steam which was ... read more

Thursday 24th – today we are off on our special ‘holiday’ so Graham was up at about 6.15 to prepare Sweetie for her “rest period”. I followed as soon as the alarm went off at 6.30am. There were a few other people about but generally most people were still asleep so we had to be as quiet as possible although when you are “putting a caravan away” it’s practically impossible not to make some noise. Legs have to be raised, the awning put away, the elevating roof put down, water hoses dis-connected and all the additional camping paraphernalia stored inside. Anyway, we were ready to go at 7.40, ten minutes later than planned. So we said a sad farewell to Sweetie hoping she would be alright for the next 11 days. We were flying to New ... read more

Well it's my turn to write, over to you Charl to check the spelling. I'm going to start by saying what a terrific trip we had to the Orbit restaurant at the top of Sky Tower, great food, relaxed atmosphere and the views all across the city as the restaurant revolved were fantastic. The evening was also rather special as we were lucky enough to be in Ackland on their Anniversary holiday week-end, and there was a magnificent firework display across the harbour. We started out on Monday to travel around the Coromandal Peninsula, needless to say we were up packed and on the road by 9o'clock. The plan was to travel up the scenic coast and across to Cathedral Cove and hot water beach,where the thermal waters brew just below the sand and you can ... read more