Blogs from Tutukaka, Whangarei, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Bay of Islands 15th March Auckland to Whangarei Day 1 After leaving Auckland on the 14th, Valentine's Day, we had to look for accommodation for the night. We headed towards Waipu, a small township just off Highland 1 in Bream Bay. This was the settlement of over 800 Highlanders who arrived here under the guidance of the Presbyterian minister Norman McLeod. They arrived here in the 1850s after leaving Scotland following the Clearances, they came the long way round via Nova Scotia and Australia. A highlight of Waipus calendar are the annual Highland games held in the New Year. We needed accommodation so headed a bit further North to the town of Wharangei, visiting the Isite (Tourist Board info) just on the outskirts of town. This is when we found there wasn't much accommodation to be ... read more

Have u heard about Abbey caves? There is a place near Whangerei where u can have a walk in caves with bees inside.U need a lamp in the dark to make your way through. Above u can discover many glow worms. They look like shining stars in the milky way. We visited three different caves. The first one is the biggest. At the end of the walk u can have a cold water beach.That was my absolute favourite.Now, my circulation is on the run.... Apart from marvellous glow worm I have seen some nice animals for the first time: -stick insect -eel -queen bee sourrounded by drones -bees performing a swinging dance... read more

Auckland We arrived in Auckland after a smooth three hour flight from Fiji. When I stepped off the plane it was tough to not say Bula to people!! We decided to check out Auckland for two days and we had a very rough plan to book a camper somewhere before then. So after hopping onto the bus and checking into the YHA hostel we went on a jaunt down the main road in Auckland, Queen St. It was clear that our overall experience here in New Zealand was going to be so different than our previous few months. For one, walking down the street we were not being stared at, that there were fully functioning traffic lights and people followed them and that really the way of life here is the same as home. This means ... read more

Our last day in NZ today :( Sad to be leaving (even though it's chucking it down with rain!) but very excited for Fiji tomorrow! So, since the last blog entry we've been pretty busy again! Did the Waitomo glow worm caves last week which were amazing - Rich did tubing in the caves on a rubber ring through the tunnels, etc. whilst I opted for the much more hardcore option of a walk and a boat ride :P With the bad weather the next day we decided to have a more relaxed day and went to the cinema in Manakau (where they have a Westfields centre!), and then it was time to drive further up north to Whangarei to visit Rich's other Uncle and Aunt. They have a very swanky place (with a pool, cinema ... read more

On another of our off-day we decided to tour more of Northland again. This time we chose to head towards east side towards Ngunguru (means "rumbling tides in Maori language) and Tutukaka area. These are two coastal towns with plenty of lovely, picturesque beaches. Before we departed, we made some American styled pancakes for breakfast. We made pit stops at Ngunguru Bay, Whangaumu Bay, Matapouri Bay, Whale Bay and did a very short hike through the grasslands and beach to the Tutukaka Lighthouse in the Tutukaka Recreational Reserve. The best bay was Matapouri Bay, in which we stopped to have a picnic of our homemade fish sandwich. I was the driver for most of this trip. ... read more