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

So we headed to Mark's house in New Plymouth yesterday. It was a rainy day so we closed up the cottage and hopped on the ferry. It was a beautiful drive. AND I drove for part of the way! It did feel strange cause I expected the car to be on the other side of me but Mark was a very good teacher! It was such a windy road though so I got lots of practice on turning corners etc! I have some pictures from along the way as well for all of you to enjoy! We got home around 8pm-ish and I met our housemates. They all seem really nice, there's Belinda and Calib (bf and gf) and Laurell. Mark's house is very nice and he has been doing a lot of work on the ... read more

Apres notre randonnee, on a fait une halte bien meritee chez Sophie, une amie de Jersey! Il faut croire que tout Jersey est arrive en NZ! Bref, weekend super relax a New Plymouth dans la masion de Sophie avec ses animaux et avec des vues magnifiques du Mt Taranaki, un volcan dormant. Le musee de New Plymouth est super interessant et explique plein de choses sur les volcans, en particulier Taranaki. After our trek, we spent a well-deserved weekend at Patrick's friend Sophie, from Jersey. Are all Jersey beans now in NZ? It was very relaxing in her house, with her animals and fantastic views of Taranaki. The museum of New Plymouth is also very interesting and explains a lot about volcanoes, in particular Taranaki.... read more

Here we are, in New Plymouth! We left Rotorua late morning, yesterday, bidding a fond farewell to Blue Lake campsite, our home for the past 7 weeks or so. It's about a 200 mile drive, with some winding roads along the last stretch, but a pleasant journey. We're missing the bush and the lake a bit, but enjoying the new vista across the Tasman Sea from the Belt Road Holiday Park, and the fresh sea breeze. The van remains a constant during all of this, like a comfortable shoe. Wherever we go, we have the familiarity of the van and our things in it. Giving up this van at the end of March is going to be a struggle! However, the plan is to hire a camper in Australia. We just couldn't do B&B's and hotels ... read more

After so much time taken to get from London to Hong Kong overland it was a bit of shock to be stepping off a plane just 10 hours later in Auckland airport (New Zealand). It shocked not only us, but many of our supporters who seemed somewhat let down to realise the final leg of our journey had been made in such a ridiculously short time. With the bicycles each weighing 18kg there had not been much luggage allowance left for anything else! Luckily my parents were waiting there to make the landing a bit easier and to escort us and our poor bicycles, having lost their status and being reduced to a small sack, down to Tauranga. Our final destination was New Plymouth and Yes we could have ridden back there, another few hundred kilometres ... read more

Hallo all, Thought we'd squeeze in a blog before Santy comes, as we've been moving round a fair bit, and gets hard to recount it all, when we are travelling fast! So we headed off from Pahia in the northlands about a fortnight ago, in the oul' mazda with our first two hitchhikers, two english guys, Ross and Sam who were heading down to Auckland, and who we had been limbo'ing with in the local pub the night before (ask no questions and we'll tell yee no lies). The car coped well, and they gave us some dosh toward petrol so that was sweet. Actually backtracking a bit, our last night in Pahia, Paul spotted a guy in the pub who had been in our minibus from the airport in Hanoi in Vietnam, who we'd also ... read more