Blogs from Northland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 30

When i grow up i want to be a sailor! Another beautiful day in Paihia and Cinderalla finally gets a day off. Booked my self onto a sailing trip around the bay of islands and got to live the high life for a day. I got to stear the boat which was great, not sure the other passengers agreed but i was loving every minute! We set out early morning and sailed for a couple of hours before arriving at a little island where we kayaked and snorkelled to our hearts content before getting back on the boat and putting up the sails to gilde along and watch the penguines and dolphins swim by in the evening sunshine. Bliss. I'll let the photos speak for them selves as I'm having real trouble forming sentences today as ... read more

Jan 16 2006 Northland, New Zealand. We left Dairy Flat at the early hour of 11 am and immediately purchased a ginormous bar of semi sweet chocolate to celebrate heading out on AL and Pat's Big Adventure. The landscape is the usual Breath-Taking combination of rolling green hills that frequently give the observer the impression that they are mown, and dots of sheep and cattle on the hills. This, I am told, is due to the munching preferences of sheep, who are excellent natural grass mowers. I often think it would be so much easier to maintain our lawn in Oro Station with a pet sheep or two. The Kauri Museum on the west coast of the Northland was fascinating. It has a vast collection of kauri wood specimens and artifacts. When the Europeans first came ... read more

Tim is ill! We knew it would happen sooner or later but we thought it would be in Asia. It was only a matter of time before one of us got the lurgi! Tim has had some nasty stomach bug that came on yesterday lunchtime on our way to Ahipara. He seems a bit better now but we had to cancel our trip to Cape Regina today. On the plus side I got to go boogie boarding which was excellent fun. You could go on the beach which was right outside the hostel. They even lent you boards for free. It is not as easy as it looks but a got the hang of it. I left Tim on the beach with the camera to film and photograph me in action!... read more

Hot springs and hills 4-5/12/05 We rode away from the hostel and headed for the ferry back to the mainland, the hills didn't seem as bad on the way back and the mile downhill to the port was great. We rolled the bikes onto the ferry, expecting the same comedy routine (carrying them fully laden down four steps and over two door sills) as we'd had on the way to Waiheke. Amazingly we were loaded straight onto the back of the boat and only had our fellow passengers to negotiate. The ride out of Auckland took ages, the place goes on for miles and miles, but eventually we left the buildings behind and pedalled out into the countryside. Just after Point Chevalier we met a guy pushing a 36" unicycle down a steep slope, he was ... read more

Hi folks, I know pictures have been promised and we are working on it. Thecomputer we currently have access to is cleverly set up to only allow web browsing. This means I cannot upload our pictures from a CD. My apologies as I know you are all waiting with bated breath. I have not yet read Abby's last entry but I thought you might like to know that yesterday we went to see The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and it was really fantastic. I will be seeking out the books so that I can re-read them. Sorry if that was duplicate information. Today Abby and I went to Puketi Forest where we hiked to a grove of Giant Kauri tree. These trees are really impressive even (I should say especially) compared to Redwoods and ... read more