Blogs from Tutukaka, Whangarei, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 2

The past few weeks in New Zealand have been hectic! I haven’t had much time to update my blog at all and here is why. The first few days I was here were filled with all sorts of yard work. Ingrid’s property is right on the water and she purchased this chunk of land from her father, who lives in the house next door. He and his wife have since moved to Vanuato and they are trying to sell the house. Unfortunately the house hasn’t sold yet for various reasons. We have been trying to negate those various reasons, hence the work. I have to say though, I haven’t done extensive manual labor in a while and I’m really loving it. Being outside in the gorgeous weather for the whole day is amazing, and getting good ... read more

The Poor Knights Islands and back to Auckland When I got back to Auckland from the South Island, I hired a car for a few days again and drove north to a small town on the coast called Tutukaka. This town is the place to be if you want to do New Zealand's best diving at the Poor Knights Islands. The islands are mainly big rocks jutting out from the sea with some collapsed walls, resulting in holes in the rock. The underwater scenery is just as spectacular. Big stingrays swim around and there is a cave with an air chamber inside, where you can surface and breath, although not pleasantly. The water was quite cold though, about 19-20 degrees (Celsius) so we wore rather thick wetsuits to protect us from the cold. On the way ... read more