Blogs from East Coast, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Pulling the curtains aside and seeing absolutely clear skies, it was, “Oh beauty”, however, upon setting out after breakfast, a fog occurred from out of nowhere, reducing visibility to 50m or less. We ‘drove-out-of-it’ after about 30kms as we headed to our destination of Castlepoint on the eastern coast of the North Island. It is enough to say that wherever you travel in NZ the countryside is lush and scenic. Literally minutes after turning-off at Masterton for the coast the saturated and still flooded fields both sides of the road were in evidence. Things were to become worse. The streams had become rivers and the rivers had become raging torrents during the recent cyclone and infrastructure damage was clearly visible. Tall cornfield crops still had water to half of their height, farmhouses with mudlines a third ... read more

What an absolute pearler of a morning and although our room at the Te Kaha Resort essentially faced west it was still quite magical to see the pink appear in the clear sky out our bedroom window. One of little luxuries with this 3 night,4 day road trip is that neither of has to prepare breakfast for the other. So it was two poached eggs with bacon on toast and a hot strong,long black to go with it.And we were set up for the day. Our room at the Te Kaha Resort has been very comfortable with all we could want although when we return we will go up one floor for an even more expansive view of the Pacific Ocean. We hit the road heading further eastwards before 10am with Anaura Bay in our sights ... read more

It has been over 3 months since the BBA had to postpone the next adventure that had been planned for nearly a year before our departure date of early May 2020. Gone are the fanciful thoughts of new landscapes to set our eyes upon in the Mediterranean islands of Greece,Malta,Sardinia and Corsica followed by some time in France and then nearly a week with family in a Tuscany villa before we moved onto England,Scotland and finally Ireland before heading home at the end of August and be back in New Zealand before grandson number 3 had his 5th birthday. Instead we have planned some local trips in our home country over the next few months.Well we have little other choice as COVID-19 has resulted in our borders to the outside world closed for travellers like us.It's ... read more

23rd November Getting good at sorting myself out in the morning, it’s them best way to avoid a hypo incident in a walk is to straight out for my walk after breakfast. Having looked at a map yesterday I decided to follow the river to the botanic gardens and go to the museum and have lunch on the way back. It is a flat walk following a cycle path, so pack my normal water, snacks and glucose tablets. Left the campsite just before 10. The first part if walk takes me along the sea from and past the docks, where they are manoeuvring another timber laden ship out of the harbour. I think they load one shop with every tide. No need to use the railway line to cross the river today the river is the ... read more

Once we had arrived in Rotorua, we went white water rafting. It was a lot of fun to raft down waterfalls, one of which was the highest commercially rafted waterfall in the world with its 7 meters in height! We immersed into the water completely but made it back up without flipping over. For another waterfall, we all had to get out of the raft, hold on to the rope on the side and press our legs against the bottom of the raft. It was such a thrill, I loved every second of it! From Rotorua I did a small trip to the east coast, along with 10 others. Hunter, our bus driver, was Maori so he could tell us a lot of great stories. The first stop was Maraehako Bay, where we stayed in a ... read more