Blogs from Whitianga, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 3

A very early start, having got up at 4am, to be on the beach at 4.30, when the tide was out. The name of the beach is literally what it is. In a certain area, you can feel hot patches of sand under your feet. If you dig a hole in these areas they fill with boiling hot water which comes from volcanic reservoirs beneath the sand. It was incredible to be lying in a hot bath, whilst the air around was so cold and the sun had not yet risen. As you can tell from the pictures, we waited for the sun to rise, which was breath taking! A long drive to our next destination, Lake Taupo, was broken up by Dom spotting a sign: “Zorbing - 300m on left”. This was something we’d always ... read more

Got up early and a little hung over from the night before and went down stairs to start my Kiwi Experience. Met the rest of the group on the bus (all seem really nice although very quiet) and our driver Scotty, who like all New Zealandres seems to say "sweet as" alot. Before leaving Auckland we headed up to the top of Mt Eden (dorment Volcano) for a panoramic view of the city. Auckland does seem to sprawel quite a distance and from this vantige point you could make out all the small Maori hill forts (rather like the earth forts near Andover, uk.) Mt Eden is quite funny in that its smack bang in the middle of the city and is covered in grazing cows (most of the grazing appeared to be going down in ... read more

A Very Inaupsicious Start The first stop on our bus tour was Mercury Bay or Whitianga in Maori, in truth it wasnt a great introduction to the tour because we got dropped of in the town in the early afternoon, and there was nothing to do and the weather meant walking round was impossible. Not to be negative about it, but it wasnt exactly how i imaginged the trip to be, spending the entire day in hostels tiny bar, we did even eventually try to go to a bar in town but as we got there at around 8.30 the place was shutting - so that gives you an idea of how things were! To be fair though the hostel was immaculate, with almost brand new beds, and with the early start in the morning (7.30-8) ... read more

Hello All, We are still rockin it in Whitianga. (pronounce Fitianha) We have spent four days working at the Wilderland Trust farm. I eill give you a day by day breakday in a moment. First let me give you an idea of what this place is like. Well I can't really give you a perfect description but for any of you who lived at EBF and or visited the freedom farm it is kind of like a mix between the two. This is a communal property (very large property with many gardens orchards and bee boxes), each resident ( I believe there are about 15) has there own private residence. We also have our own private residence and there is a common building with a kitchen, shower and laundry machine. The common building is known as ... read more