Blogs from Bay of Plenty, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 38

We travelled from Ohope near Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty, to Te Puke which is a half hour from my cousin's daughter and her family in Tauranga. The wwoof hosts were a bit older than us, and had been living on their plot of land for about 17 years. They have a large flower garden outside their house which is perched on a flat area surrounded by hills sloping down away from them. They have about a hundred sheep and 32 head of cattle (calves), chooks and ducks. We discovered that there were not that many organic practices that were used on this farm. The plant material that I cut and pulled from the flower garden was put in a bin, driven away by tractor and burned in a distant paddock! The kitchen compost pile ... read more

A month ago I missed this day, the 15th, as I was flying towards New Zealand and crossed the International Date Line. Weird! I can’t believe I’ve been here a month! It feels both too short and too long a time all at once - I’ve done so much that it feels like it’s been at least two months, but it doesn’t feel like a month since I’ve been away from home. I hope that makes at least a little sense… Anyway, things are still great here. The most recent trip was to Mount Maunganui, a beach and mountain on the East coast, in the Bay of Plenty. It was beautiful! Nine of us left Saturday morning and drove a little over an hour to the beach. We played touch rugby on the beach a while, ... read more

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

Helllloooo Only a few days to go.... We have been busy since Waihi and seeing the olds, we headed from Waihi to Raglan, which is home of some big surf. When we arrived, low and behold, there were kites out. The worst bit being that the current was really fierce (those damn currants) and there are plenty of rips. So... I had to leave it on this occassion. Had wicked time there though, Raglan nice little surf town. We then headed down to Waitomo (this is to be said in very serious deep voice - as this is how it was repeatedly pronounced during a museum video on the area) where we saw aractnacampa lumineso - more commonly known as... glow worms. Obviously we were too tight to pay to go into the glow worm caves ... read more

Hi everyone, Come on. we know it's cold and miserable back in the UK and you're all probably fed up, but please send us something even if its just to let us know you're still alive! We'd love to hear from you, even if its to be rude Karen :-) We're still travelling down the east caost of North Island and are now at Ohope Beech near Whakatane pronounced Fuckatane which John has to keep saying at every opportunity, can't think why. The beaches are glorious here andoff camp sites we were at last time near Roturura at Blue Lake, We spent a very hot day visiting the geysers one of which shoots about 25 metres into the air; quite awesome as we could feel the earth moving!! Tomorrow we move on down to Gisborne and ... read more