Blogs from Hawkes Bay, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

30.1.2013 Had a fun dinner last night with all our crew but didn’t do a show as we had to be up pretty early for our early morning tour of Napier and Hawkes Bay. Picked up at the boat for our tour of Napier and Hawkes Bay wineries by our lovely guide Mike, who made our day perfect in the area. Being a private tour made it much more personal than going with a big bus tour from the ship, I booked all our tours before we left home. Napier is a very art deco town being just about demolished with earthquakes in 1931 – another very picture perfect seaside place – we were greeted on the wharf with an array of vintage cars with their drivers all decked out in dress of the art deco ... read more

Samstag, 20. Oktober, Napier Das Wetter ist doch nicht so schlecht, wie angekündigt. Es ist sehr windig, ja eher stürmisch; aber die Sonne und der Himmel zeigen sich zwischen den Wolken – Wetterglück gehabt. Es bleibt ziemlich kühl. Im Hintergrund, als spezielle Kulisse, zeigt sich das eindrücklich vulkanische Ruapehu-Massiv, tief verschneit. Heute fahren wir nach Napier, die Art Déco-Stadt an der Ostküste, an der berühmten Hawke’s Bay. Der 2-stündige Weg führt vorbei an weiten Grasebenen des Hochlandes um Taupo, an weiten Weideflächen, mit Hunderten, ja wahrscheinlich Tausenden von Rindern, vorbei an öden Nutzwäldern, vorbei an kahlgeschlagenen Hügeln und Ebenen. Manchmal sieht es so aus, als hätte hier eine Naturkatastrophe stattgefunden. Die Nutzwälder, mit schnellwachsendem Nadelgehölz bildet hier den Hauptanteil von bewaldetem Gebiet. Nach ca 12-15 Jahren, we... read more

Hi Guys, been along day on the bike heading to Blackburn, on the way i passed a lovely little place with a lovely school, anyway nothing really in blackburn apart from the new tesco and amazing views, im down in Hastings still no rain, but the forecast shows it coming, never mind ive only had one day up to now so its sweet, hope everyone is good, keep the comments coming, Guzzler book me on the golf trip sept, i will see you before then pal. missing you all Ta Ta for now Sam x... read more

Hi Folks, We’ve been in NZ for 5 days and have a few observations to share with you: ‘give way’ means ‘yield’; ‘way out’ means ‘exit; ‘long black’ means an espresso coffee with hot water on the side – the only way to get what we consider a regular black coffee; ‘white tea’ means regular tea frothed with milk; people thank the drivers when exiting the bus; residential mail is delivered via bicycle to mail boxes located at the edges of sidewalks; speed limits are 100 km/hr on narrow, hilly, curvy highways – we would be used to limits of 70 – 80 km/hr in these situations; Auckland ambulances are Mercedes; there are few flower gardens adorning residential homes – mostly green shrubbery; gas is $2.12/litre – yikes!!! We are currently in Napier – completely destroyed ... read more

Today, it was all go and I was up at the crack of 8am to start (and finish) my packing on the 4 day journey that would lead to Belgium, or ‘Belgique’ as locals call it. The first leg was a very emotional take off from the Napier airport, complete with St John Boys Jack Dillon, Nick Dyne, Regan Mckinlay and Finn Dillon doing a beast of a haka, silencing important business airport conversations all through the Napier airport.. Seriously couldn’t have asked for a better leave, with all the boys, the fam, and of course the girl there. So after some tears, goodbyes, and of course a ton of photos, we (Sammy, Katelyn, Ash and Lisa) Hopped onto the plane to arrive in Auckland airport around an hour away. The take-off was something I hadent ... read more