Blogs from Napier, Hawkes Bay, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

Wednesday 2nd – we woke to a clear blue sky and, although we had not made any specific plans, the day began to develop quite nicely. We had spotted a couple of interesting sculptures on our “duck” tour which had also travelled passed the aquarium so we made the sculptures and the aquarium the focus of our morning. The main sculpture we wanted to see represented the sunrise as Napier is the second city in the world (3 seconds after Gisborne) to witness a sunrise each morning and, of course, to experience New Year celebrations. This particular sculpture was erected to commemorate the millennium and was a pretty impressive, though simple construction. The Aquarium was virtually next door so was an obvious next stop and what a good stop it was. Just as we arrived and ... read more

Auckland! Well I am starting this in Auckland, but as we have a long way to go in New Zealand, I am not sure when it will end, and you will all catch up!! I had forgotten how much I loved this place until we arrived again today! I feel so old, it is definitely for young people, busy, vibrant and exciting! If I were to jump ship, it would probably be here and now! What a fantastic mix of Colonial, Imperial and Modern innovative exciting youngsters, even the Grandparents make me look old! The only trouble is that I would have to learn to sail, it is for the sure the best pastime here! Well we have spent the day sightseeing, and walking around this lovely city, after such a long spell at sea, it ... read more

Morning all, we are on our last leg of our trip to New Zealand but my travelblog is on week 1. That's good 'cause I can relive this great road journey. I wanted to just say when I closed my last blog. While still in the 'Bay of Plenty' Kiwi growing county. I read that the kiwi fruit we all eat was originally the Chinese gooseberry. some New Zealand farmers' took it, mess around with it a bit and out came this big sweet fruit. some of the saftey road signs are of kiwi fruit. A family of kiwi fruit all wearing their seat belts. A group of flat kiwi, not paying attention to the road. etc. On the road to Napier, now on the highway 5 through forests, and I mean real forests! until we ... read more

Happy Birthday Mum - hope you have a lovely day! And to everyone else, Happy St George’s Day - celebrate in style! I think we have had a sign of things to come ... our days have been absolutely glorious up until now, and people keep telling us how lucky we are with daytime temperatures in the mid 20s and bright blue skies - but last night was the coldest we’ve had so far - we even had condensation on the windows! We were snuggled up together all night, but I wonder whether we’ll be purchasing another blanket soon! However, the sun was shining brightly this morning, and we sat for a while just admiring the wonderful site that we’d found whilst watching the adventure canoes set off down the river. John describes the area as ... read more

Mandag 7 dec. Byen Rotoura stinker - jeps, der lugter af rådne æg. Det er selvfølgelig på grund af alle de varme geotermiske kilder der er overalt i byen. Ellers sker der ikke det store i byen, men Hella havde heldigvis booket en ”4WD Volcano Safari” hjemmefra. Vi blev afhentet af Judy, en sand multitasker. Hun kunne snakke om alt fra global opvarmning til børneopdragelse, knævre i mobil, drikke vand og samtidig kaste den ældre Toyota Landcruiser op ad en gedesti for fuld skrue, så vi andre bare tumlede rund omme bagi som hamstere i en tørretumbler………. Vel ankommet på toppen af Mt. Tarawera fortalte hun om stedets historie, det store udbrud for 120 år siden hvor bjerget eksploderede og udslettede et par landsbyer, og så siger damen ”now, let’s go down in the crater…..” Vi ... read more