Blogs from North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 1183

Somehow after all the rain that fell during our walk around the northern circuit the river level fell on the Whanganui so we were able to hire a canoe and set off down the 88km section from Whakahoro to Pipiriki. To get to the river we were driven 45km from the main road down a windy primarily gravel track (sorry road) that ended at Whakahoro (which we somehow missed!). Then, after 5mins instruction, we were off on to the river. During the next 3 days we saw 57 goats (approx.), 1 wild pig, lots of birds and a total of 5 people, 4 of whom passed in jet boats. It was a fantastic journey through untouched native bush/forest. Fortunately the high river level meant that we were able to travel quicker than usual times with less ... read more

Spent the night listening to the Heavey Sleeper's mating snore call. Sadly meant I, (and the whole dorm), kept waking up at roughly 2 hour intervals meaning by 7am I was fed up and feeling wide awake, (WakADay Style), so got up, showered and packed for a day trip. On the way out I checked with Reception asking about Lord Al, I made up some story about us being great mates and him promising to give me his contact details, but having to rush off early for a flight. Anyway, it worked and the girl started searching for Lord Al, in dorm 820 on the night that I met him. She searched. And searched. And tried all names beinning with A, but still no luck. The penny was starting to drop, and I leaned over, turned ... read more

Sparrows, you see, are very very cute. The seagulls, on the other hand, are evil. They will steal the crumbs from the sparrows. So make sure you throw them very close to the sparrows... I have just moved on from Rotorua, home to large numbers of both the above species of birds, along with the glorious eggy smell which originates from the area's massive geothermal underbelly. It is, I am fairly sure, one of the few places in the world where you can break wind and recieve no complaint. Wherever you are, the sulphorous smell generally surfaces at some point or another. I spent a few days in the town, and managed to get plenty done (a little too much perhaps; I am pretty sure I'm overspending...). On the first day I visited the Wai-O-Taupo Thermal ... read more

It's only 4 days to go and I'm freaking out. We just bought our apartment on the weekend (just for that added extra pressure) and now have to get paperwork signed up and all that rubbish done before we go. Our friends Grant and Greer will be staying in the apt while we are gone, so we know it will be looked after but I'm FREAKING out! Jules is so bogged down with work it's not funny. Right now, I wish we had another month to plan for this trip. So many things left to do.... Still haven't booked flights from Amsterdam to London, still haven't booked london accom......ARRRRGH! ... read more

We get up and get our bags packed by 10:30 am. We get on rental computers in the lounge area for an hour so we can kill some time before lunch. Our bus to Wellington leaves at 2:30 pm. We walk down to Eivin’s (the family owned café) but they are only open for dinner, so we decide to try to get to the rail station restaurant before the trains come in. We get there about 12:30 pm and the trains are not due until at least 1:00 pm, so we have a wonderful lunch and watch the trains come in from Auckland and Wellington before going back to our hotel to pick up our bags. The trip to Wellington is beautiful. We travel through hilly and terraced pastureland. Since it is spring here there are ... read more