Blogs from Whangarei, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

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

Finally the weather became really good, so Lie Wei, Lie Yee and Jie Min decide to attempt the supposedly gruelling Bream Head/Te Whara track which is said to take 10 hours roundtrip according to the NZ Department of Conservation (DOC). The distance one-way was 7.5km. http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/tracks-and-walks/northland/whangarei-area/bream-head-te-whara-track/ The night before the hike, we did plenty of research and preparation as the DOC website said we need to have reasonable skill and fitness. Since it was going to be such a long hike, I made sure I prepared plenty of food, water as well as gear to cover for any weather conditions, e.g. waterproof jacket, headlamp, GPS watch. I even drew a copy of the map outlining the trail we were to take from the DOC website. We started our day very early, driving out from our homestay ... read more

We do A LOT of baking/cooking in NZ because we have a lot of free time after work and even if we do runs we still have time. Another reason for all this cooking/baking is that eating out is tremendously expensive here so whenever we have the craving to eat something, we most likely will have to do it ourselves. Plus, most of us have been here for more than a month and we are starting to miss Asian food and from time-to-time we do try to find the ingredients in the Asian supermarket in Auckland so we can by them back to Whangarei to cook them. We have tried our hand at roti canai, fried hokkien mee and shepherd's pie to name a few. We have also managed to whip up quite a few batches ... read more

We left Cape Reinga and drove Whangarei hoping to get tickets to the Tonga vs Canada game. We arrived and parked in the information centre car park and decided to stay there for the night because it was walking distance to the stadium. Tickets to the game had sold out so we decided to walk to the stadium hoping to scalp some tickets. We got lucky and managed to scalp some tickets. As we walked to the gate number on the tickets we noticed the tickets also said 'Corporate'. Thinking that we had been fleeced we walked in waiting for security to tackle us. A lady showed us to an elevator then we were guided to a door and after sitting in our seats we had realised the we had just scored the best seats in ... read more

Lie Wei and I travelled 165km north of Auckland to accept a job at Apata, a packhouse that packs kiwis and avocados for export. Kiwi season had ended so we are now avocado packers. Whangarei (pronounced Fangarei) is a pretty small town and when we first arrived we stayed at this really homey backpackers place called Bunkdown Lodge with hosts, Noell and Peter and their pets, Sage the dog and Tally the cat. The backpackers place is really cool and I love it! It is basically a very large house converted into a backpackers place so it's got a very homey feel. Our hosts are great and we made a lot of new friends here. After 1.5 weeks we have almost ran/walked/explored the entire Whangarei town area. It is so small that we can't even map ... read more