Blogs from Coromandel, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 41

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Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel » Whitianga February 7th 2006

Well my time in New Zealand is coming to an end but not before I experienced a few more once in a lifetime activities with my dolphin swimming trip and a skydive! The dolphin trip was remarkable. The weather held out and although I was seasick on the boat we were able to enter the water four times to swim with the dolphins as the pod passed through the area the baot was floating in. The dusky dolphins are completely wild and the pod we came across numbered about 200-300 dolphins. Divers were providied with snorkels and masks and we just jumped right in with the dolphins! They were quite inquisitive and responded well if you tried to make noises through your snorkel at them or sing to them. If you swim in a circle then ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel » Waihi January 26th 2006

Howdy all! Just thought we should let you all know what we've been up too lately - - - - apart from being wonderfully lazy, reading on the beach! Here is where we have been since last time...... We made it too Opatiki, where the Pacafic Ocean was blue and calm, the sun hot and barmy. This was a happy change from the churning and rugged west coast at New Plymouth. After lazing there for a while we journeyed up the coast to Papamoa and surfed next to the mile after mile of blond sand, in metre high waves and under blue sky. Whilst there we explored several "Pa" (which are the equvilent of our stone age hill forts, yet only a few centuries old dating from the 18th and 19th centuries and maori civilisation), had ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel » Whitianga January 25th 2006

Hi friends and family, You've probably realised by now that we're here in NZ safe and sound and having a great time chilling, surfing (I kid you not - more later!!). We had good flights out, although horribly jet lagged when we arrived in Singapore where it was about 30 degrees. Sat outside in the garden of our hotel listening to live music .. good singer, pity about his material - Englebert Humperdick is alive and well:-) We have spent a smashing 3 days with Chris and Helena - Chris has turned into a beach-bum, sun tanned, hair bleached and long (for Chris) Helena just looks gorgeous - sun bronzed and sun streaked hair - I hate her!!! At the moment we are staying at Cathedral Cove (those who know my wallpaper at work will know ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel January 20th 2006

So after the last blog turned into a 1000 page novel I decided the blog needed updating more frequently. Plus I need to keep all my devoted readers interested. Even though I'm probably just fooling myself thinking that I have devoted readers. Driving around New Zealand has been great, or should I say being chauffeured around as I do no driving...need to practice driving a manual transmission. I'm not complaining though being a passenger has it's benefits...get to enjoy the view. The roads in NZ are spectacular, there are no highways every road is one lane in each direction and there are endless "S" turns and switchbacks. Not to mention gravel roads, we must have driven 100+ km on gravel roads so far. Plus they don't like to build two lane bridges, they love one lane ... read more
Steps, Step and more Steps
The view from the Pinnacles Hut
Check out that tent site

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel » Coromandel Town January 20th 2006

Fri. 20th. We've been here a week now, and our feet haven't yet touched the ground. Normal service will be resumed as soon as we have 5 mins. to spare!... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel January 16th 2006

We left the East Cape yesterday and headed for the Coromandel Peninsula. It was not the most interesting drive but we did pass a giant kiwi fruit! The Coromandel peninsula is lovely. We are staying in Hahei, which is a really nice beach town. It takes us about a minute to walk to the beach! We went for a quick swim yesterday. The beach gets huge waves so we had fun splashing about in the surf. Today we walked along the coast to Cathedral cove, which is this gorgeous cove, which has a huge natural arch. You can walk though the arch to another beach. In the afternoon we went to Hot Water Beach, which is a beach that has hot springs under the sand. This mean you can build yourself a hot tub! In some ... read more
Cathedral cove

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel » Coromandel Town January 12th 2006

We stayed in Thames to give us time to visit the Hot Water beaches we'd read so much about and to do a bit of walking and swimming. We walked to a pleasant swimming hole where daring young Kiwi's jump from a small rock and had a short swim, nice. The next day we drove to the Hot Water beach to dig a hole. We scoped out previously dug holes and even tried digging a small test hole. Just as well we didn't fork out for a spade as it seemed someone else had used all the hot water. Or maybe we arrived too late to enjoy sitting in a hot hole of water waiting for the tide to come in. So we had a paddle and went back to our strange accommodation in Thames to ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel » Coromandel Town January 8th 2006

Saying farewell to this beautiful piece of NZ was hard. We know we're going to miss the deserted, white sandy beaches that stretch for miles, the cool, clear, refreshing water & the beautiful days that make up a NZ summer. We tried to make the most of it, basing ourselves in Linda & Bruce's Pauanui bach, spending New Year's with friends in Whangamata, then traveling up to camp at the remote Waikawau Bay (no phone coverage - yippee), back down through Coromandel town & touring NZ’s best potter, Barry Bricknell’s railway. Then back to Pauanui for rest & relaxation - via Whitianga. Here are the pics.... read more
Mt Pauanui form Pauanui beach
Looking out at Pauanui beach
Waikawau Bay

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel December 13th 2005

Cycling for Real We left Auckland on 6 December catching the train into town and then the ferry to Coromandel town. A lovely day with the sun out but with a bit of cloud to help us up the hill. After a stop for lunch we started out on the steepest hill we could find straight up to 360 metres. We had spectacular views all the way up even when we were walking and then on the decent, seeing both sides of the peninsular. Managed to call into another internet cafe to catch up with news from home. It's good to hear from everyone and know that we've lost another manager for instance. Carrying on around the Coromandel we stoppped at Hahei to visit the Cathedral Cove and go kayaking on the ocean. This coast ... read more
Tahiti from Moorea
An island off Moorea
Sign above Katikati

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Coromandel » Coromandel Town December 6th 2005

My last week in New Zealand and I´ve still not found a rugby player. What´s the problem here? New Zealand isn´t flooded with men as I had thought, so my drought continues. In fact, one statistic I overheard was that there are actually 5 single women for every single man in the North Island! If this is really true perhaps I should have done my homework a bit more before coming!! Having left the pungent skies of Rotorua, I managed to make it to Whitianga for the night. I joined a few others from the hostel for a local tour, and found myself digging holes in the sand on Hot Rocks beach. If you dig a hole the size of a bathtub it´s supposed to fill in with hot water for a natural beach spa. I ... read more
Farewell Sheep
Cathedral Cove Jump
Me riding in Bay of Islands




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