Blogs from North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 1191

Woke up during the night but went back to sleep on my own. I guess it’s the nice Hyatt bed! We walked down to the pier and went to the Department of Conservation (DOC) office. The lady there was very helpful and suggested that we try to base ourselves at a camp ground and take day walks instead of always having to break down and set up camp every day. We walked around downtown, which is very hilly and realized what bad shape we are in to be heading out on hikes. I figure we should be in pretty good shape after four months of walking and hiking. Picked up a bus timetable at the bus station so we can decide how many hours we need to buy on our bus pass. Scoped out the grocery ... read more

So Robs arrival today which im sure hell tell you about including losing to me at pool - first blood! Long way to go though. Unfortunately have lost my partner in crime and fellow blogee Gem who is now Lamb sitting at her parents. Hopefully though she'll share her experience of kawaka?? bush trek which was pretty awesome if you like heights and hot pools etc and an update on returning to normal life yyyuuuuckkkk. Anyway ill end on the competition winner of the kleidoscope ...................................................... Big Bro and his girls - yes cillit bang, well close enough, so the star prize will be winging its way across the world with Gem soon- congrats! pictures will be updated and ill finish with Rob and his colourful report! managed to meet up with gypsy wiseman who was ... read more

Gem here, Few days behind in updating about our trip over the weekend with Chevy who we met pruning. We had shopped on Friday to get all the supplies needed for the weekend and told to be ready for 6am, thanks for that one Chevy. A sleepless night followed filled with BAD irish folk songs curteousy of the idiotic bloke duty manager of Napier YHA. His opinion was that everyone else in the building wanted to hear the awful sounds of a cat being strangled and churned out to try and sound like folk songs, when no one was actually sitting in the Kitchen where it was playing to listen to it, think they had all been scared off by it. But our room was right above so anyone for irish rover for the 3rd time ... read more

Hello from Napier, NZ. We are currently visiting the east coast of the North Island for a day. Napier is considered the Art Deco capital of the world (rivalling Miami). The town was destroyed by an earthquake and completely rebuilt in the early 1930s, the heyday of art deco architecture. Yesterday we visited Rotorua, kind of the Disney Land of New Zealand. The tourist draw is the geothermal/volcanic activity, that creates lots of geysers, sulphur vents and pools of hot boiling mud (downside: entire town smells like rotten eggs). Woo! We visited a spa and had mud baths, a sulphur bath and an hour long massage. The massage was worth the trip by itself! Earlier in the day, while staying in the coastal town of Whakatane ("wh" is pronounced like "f", so it sounds like faka-tah-nay, ... read more

Hello Everyone!! I am following in my friend Aaron Fox's footsteps and making an online journal which I think will be easier for me to keep everyone updated. It is very hard to imagine but I have now been in Wellington for 10 days. So much has happened it feels like I have been here longer. I have seen alot of my old friends that I made while I stayed here last year and everyone has been wonderful and helpful as I get started in my new life. I have offically been moved into my new flat for 2 days now, I have a large room in a house which I share with 4 other people who are around my age. All of them are in school and most of them go to Victoria University which ... read more