Blogs from Wellington Region, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 12

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Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington Region January 7th 2009

Greetings, a short and sweet (?!) blog this time! From Picton we jumped on the Interislander ferry and naturally Dan fell asleep while I manically tried to plan a speedy route to take us around the North Island - Nothing like forward planning ey?!! 1am and we docked in Wellington and with bleary eyes tried to find a campsite.......A bit of a shock to find ourselves on a motorway, AND driving in the dark (we're normally in bed at dusk!) Fortunately we managed to find somewhere and jumped in the back to catch a few z's - thank goodness we don't have to phaff around with a tent! Dan - Rudely awakened by kids jumping on a nearby trampoline we decided to fall out the car doors (3 & 1/2 weeks living in a car you ... read more
Playing in the wind
Giant Squid
The earthquake simulator

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington Region January 3rd 2009

Happy New Year to all! We celebrated the beginning of 2009 a full 18 hours earlier than those of you on the east coast of the U.S.! As we stood in the (fairly) warm summer night watching fireworks over Caroline Bay in the biggest crowd I have seen since arriving in New Zealand, it felt more like the Fourth of July than New Year’s Eve!! I would like to share a funny story with you that highlights some of the cultural differences that constantly surprise and delight us. Randy is working in Timaru Hospital part-time, and when he worked at Marlton one of the most enjoyable aspects of his job was that the nurses accepted him into their “inner circle”, which meant that they would discuss personal (ahem, sexual) topics in front of him, which he ... read more
Main Street in Paekakariki
Our suite at the hostel
Ghert

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington Region » Wellington January 2nd 2009

Spending Christmas and New Years in the southern hemisphere is pretty fun. Hot summer days spent lounging on the beach with the sun setting around 9pm makes a pretty good atmostphere for holiday festivites. I spent my christmas at Lake Taupo in Rainbow Lodge. This funky hostel put on a three day party filled with activites, food and booze. We had a giant christmas feast followed with delicious desert and then once the food settled we played a giant soccer match with another hostel. The only rule was that everyone must have a can of beer in their hands at all times. The penalty for breaking this rule was a shot of jagermeister! It was pretty wild, people going all out with beer exploding everywhere! Later that day I lounged down at the lake and even ... read more
Christmas Dinner
Lake Taupo
Hard Core Mountain Biking

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington Region » Porirua November 14th 2008

The next morning Brid and Chris decided to go just south of Palmerston to visit the Tui factory; we opted out and decided to press on to The Kapiti Coast and more importantly Kapiti Island Bird Sanctuary. On the way down the very hilly South East coast we made a couple of quick stops. First was at Waitarere Beach, all very windswept and a taste of things to come. On the turn off for the beach we saw a sign saying ‘HORSE POO 50c Bag’; of course we stopped for a photo. By know it was mid-afternoon and we were ready to eat. I spotted a guy parked up with his kids eating a bag of chips. When I asked where the chippy was he laughed and thrust a very large portion of hot chips in ... read more
Nice beach flowers
Maori Art Center
Art Centre Entrance Totem

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington Region » Wellington October 23rd 2008

Hi everyone!! We're updating again as our last blog was purely sky-diving, and although that was incredible fun there was far more to tell you about the North Island!! We began in Aukland but really only spent one night there getting over jet-lag and didn't even get a chance to venture into the town! We picked up our van and headed to the glow-worm filled caves of Waitomo for our black water rafting trip! We slipped into our wetsuits and walked down towards the caves. The water was absolutely freezing and we spent 3 hours in the caves floating along on massive rubber rings with only our headlamps (and the light of the glow-worms) to guide us! At some points we were told to shut off our lights and we were in the pitch back, and ... read more
Inside our new home!
Getting ready to go black water rafting in the Waitomo caves!
Driving through the mountains and towns of the North Island

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington Region October 4th 2008

Once again, come morning, we were headed south. Wellington and the South Island were the goal. Top Ten was booked but we lucked out and got an en suite and kitchen cabin, for the same price as our tight cabin! in a town called Upper Hutt. When I asked what the catch was, Grahame said we'd have to wait and see. Well we discovered that the catch was getting there! In one piece! The GPS told us to follow this road that became a one lane winding, climbing road. To add to our continuing gray hair, it became foggy! I've never heard a car horn sounded so much in my life. Of course, what goes up must come down so when we think that we have no where else to go, we go down. Luckily we ... read more
Our one lane mountain road in the fog
Hope no one  is coming our way
License to drive

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington Region September 24th 2008

It has been a whirlwind trip around the North Island of New Zealand! Last week we started our trip off by heading North from Auckland to Paihia. We took a half day boat cruise around the Bay of Islands. The highlight for me was seeing a pod of dolphins. We watched them swim around the boat for about 15 minutes - very fun. Unfortunately, they were not very cooperative when it came to having their picture taken, so I have no photos to share. We also saw the "famous" (at least locally - I'd never heard of it before) Hole-in-the-Rock, which is as you can imagine a hole in a rock. Its a lot more impressive than it sounds though. Basically its a tunnel formed by the water through this small rocky island. When the water ... read more
Bay of Islands
Greg befriending the locals at dinner
West Coast of Northland

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington Region » Wellington September 14th 2008

As we had to catch the ferry at 10am, we were all up relatively early. Feeling proud of our early morning organisation, we got to the ferry port 15 minutes early, only to be told that the ferry was running 40 minutes late. Not wanting to sit in a queue waiting for the ferry, we headed back into town to a bakery ("4th Best in New Zealand, 2006") for some cake and coffee. When we returned to the ferry port, we didn't have to wait too long until we boarded. Once on-board we found some good seats infront of the TV in the bar and settled in for the 3 hour crossing. We arrived in Wellington just before 2pm and quickly navigated our way to quite a posh hostel and checked in. First on our list ... read more
Hello North Island
Big Mountain


Here are some pictures that I took myself (on my phone so not great resolution), thought I'd post them as the Trademe entry will disappear. Will get some more soon. The sea is literally across the road. Barry... read more
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Moved from Rowena's City Lodge to a flat in Seatoun... read more
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