Blogs from Hamilton, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 8

Hello and welcome to New Zealand! First of all, an apology. This was meant to be one succinct page covering our time touring. Unfortunately, we took so many photos that we've had to split it into two. Yes, as you may have guessed, New Zealand is stunningly beautiful. After nearly 24 hours travelling from Bali, we landed in Auckland in the early evening, and promptly realised that it was winter. It looked warm, with bright sunshine and tropical plants, but I can assure you, jumpers are required in winter. You probably knew that already, but it still felt like a shock after the constant mid 30 C we were used to! We collected our campervan (the best way to see New Zealand), and headed south. As you can see from the photo, it was designed by ... read more

The new house! a quick few photos, some are before we even got set up, enjoy!... read more

Stacey and I decided to goto the winter show fr the first time in Hamilton, we thought it was gonna be good as it even had tv advertising. It was reasonably quiet as we went in the afternoon, most people go for the rides in the evening apparently. Was heaps to look at and watch, and we didn't spend too much money!... read more

So we're now back in Hamilton at Paul's parents' place, after a very busy weekend in Auckland. We drove up on Thursday and met up with Juls for dinner (we were staying with her and her husband Chris, in their lovely home on one of the bays off the waterfront.) Friday was busy busy as I met up with some of my old friends for drinks, and then joined Paul and some of his friends afterwards. Chris and Juls took us for a nice walk on Saturday afternoon (of course we had an ice cream!), and then we went to my friend Arden's place for dinner. Arden's husband Troy was hilarious, entertaining us the whole night, and even dragging me off the couch to show me how to dance at one point! And Sunday was jam-packed ... read more

We're leaving for Auckland in the next couple of hours, where we'll be spending the weekend at Chris and Juls' place, and catching up with them and other friends. I've already got a date to meet up with some old friends from when I worked here on Friday night, and I think we're pretty well booked up for every meal until we leave there on Monday! Should be nice to see everyone and hear what they've all been up to. We've been having a relaxing time here, although we're slowly starting to think of the camping gear we need to buy for Africa. (Paul found his old sleeping bag, which should be fine for him, so I'll need one of my own, plus we need to track down some luxurious sleeping mats that are as comfortable ... read more