Blogs from Hawkes Bay, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 8

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

Two islands - so close together - and each one so different!! The North Island - has beauty that is totally different to what we have seen on the South Island. Our trip here was planned so that we would be able to spend time with Roger and Joyce (friends who had worked with us in the UK). It was good to see where they live and to have them show us around a VERY tiny bit of this "mysterious" part of the world. Take a look at just some of what we have been fortunate enough to experience.... read more

Sometimes it only feels like yesterday that I was excitedly and nervously dropped off at Gatwick airport to begin my trip around the world on the kind of freezing winter’s morning the UK specialises in. In reality it was almost three years ago and counting. I guess names, places and even experiences become a blur when everyday is an experience for such a long period of time. Change becomes a habit and if you’re not careful it becomes difficult to remember that everyday you’re living a dream. Experiences which would otherwise become cherished memories become easily forgotten. Feeling the mist of an unnamed jungle waterfall softly cooling your face in the tropical heat; smelling the sulphurous toxicity of an active volcano burning your nostrils as you creep into its crater; seeing tribal people freely living their ... read more

Napier - Bloody sand flies!!!! We drove back south down the same route we had come along heading for Taupo, stopping just out side the town to view the Huka falls. Not as spectacular as Niagara but very noisy with a hell of a lot of water rushing past which was a lovely aqua marine colour. The drive from Taupo to our DOC site was a long and winding road (don’t start singing, Nath does and he’s no x-factor finalist) with no petrol stops on it at all.( luckily we’d filled up back in Taupo) and headed in the late afternoon sun to the DOC site I had only a road name for. On our travels down from Rotorua we had been “followed” by another camper that seemed to be going the same way as us, ... read more

Heading Out We had been talking about heading out for a few weeks, since we had been in Tauranga looking for work for nearly three weeks, some other people had left, and Carla got a job with the city that started in two and a half weeks. Just as we were preparing to leave the next day, we got a call from one of the employment services agencies to work a night shift at the fish factory. We went, we worked, we left the next day. We drove straight from Tauranga to Napier, having gone to Taupo before we made really good time til after we passed Taupo and found some new scenery. The road crossed several mountain ranges and you could see bright green mountain grazing pastures stretching out as far as you could see ... read more