Merry Christmas!!!

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Day 44 to 54 A bit of a blur
Hello there
Am sorry to say that we have just experienced the must un-exiting part of our trip to date.
The past 10 days have really been a bit of blur and I am struggling to find something interesting to tell you about. We decided to drive round the Coromandel peninsular on the east coast of the North Island as many people had described this area to be of exceptional beauty.
I think the south island spoilt us a bit and we kept finding ourselves wishing that we had spent more time there, although 1 ½ months south and 3 weeks north did seem right.
To summarise we drove to a place called hot water beach - a very crowded beach with some natural hot water springs that can be accessed at low tide only - guess who got there at high tide?
Then we stopped at Mercury Bay which did have a lovely beach that we spent several hours exploring. The beach had a segmented area for nesting sea birds, one of which was the Variant Oyster Catcher - a jet black wader with a large ( & rather sharp) orange beak. The Oyster Catchers were in nesting season and decided that on one of our walks we had gotten too close to their chick - we got dive bombed and squawked at. Fair enough, they were only protecting their young. Never seen us duck & walk so fast though!
After Mercury we headed further round the peninsular for several days, and I have really nothing to tell you about it except for that we were bored and fed up with driving from place to place without encountering any adventures.

After the Coromadels we headed past Auckland and up towards the Northern peninsular. So far there’s nothing much to tell you here either, except that we visited a nice waterfall in Whangarei which was unfortunately spoilt by lots of graffiti and litter, I got to hug a huge and lovely Kauri tree and we have now arrived in the Bay of Islands Oh and Jaime once again decided to venture down some wet and muddy caves at Waipu - lots of glow-worms but no hide in the darkness monsters - I’ll take his word for it……he made it out save & sound of course.
Our spirits have been really disheartent with the north island. There are just too many people here. We have been very much used to having natures treasure to ourselves and people do have a knack for spoiling things with their fast food litter everywhere and ability to make as much noise as possible.
I am sorry for sounding like such a grump, but when you’ve been to paradise people can really bring you back to so called civilisation with a bang.

Anyway, we have read that Jacque Gusto (is that how you spell his name?) declared the Bay of Islands as one of the top 5 sites in the world to go diving.
Jaime is looking into it as he has his BSAC in place and in the meantime we have booked a day’s sea kayaking for tomorrow.
I am not as nervous of the sea here as we should be sheltered by the 120 scattered islands in the bay.
So hopefully we’ll have some adventures to tell you about again soon. For now its paddle time!
Speak soon xxd




Day 55 Mangroves, rivers and waterfalls
Well hello there, we are back from a days sea kayaking…and I didn’t drown, panic or even fall in the water. We had fun! I must admit that the sea and river we kayaked down were as smooth as glass, but I’m still proud of myself for braving the elements.

Firstly we kayaked out into the bay to have a look at some Mauri Treati grounds along the coast and then it was up the river for a dip of the kayaks nose in a waterfall.
The waterfalls were around 5 meters high so nothing breathtaking, but it was still a challenge to steer the kayak into the fall to dip the nose in. Our guide then led us into some fabulous mangroves, with lots of tiny black bustling crabs and squawking shags everywhere.

Its nice to have had another adventure again and I am pleased to have tried something new. Jaime enjoyed it too; although he did end up with a couple of blisters on his hands from doing all the paddling (I mostly put my feet up haha).

For the next couple of days we are heading further up the north peninsular where there’s supposed to be some fab sand dunes you can toboggan down.

Day 56 Rainbow Warrior & a sleepy afternoon….
Today we set of around the coast to have a look at a war memorial for the Greenpeace Flagship - The Rainbow Warrior. For anyone who has not heard of the sinking of this vessel Warrior, here’s a little synopsis:
From 1966 France had been was using the tiny Pacific Atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa as their nuclear testing grounds. A location conveniently distanced 15,000km away from Paris, but just 4000km from New Zealand. And although they were claiming this to be a perfectly safe thing to do on uninhabited islands, several investigations concluded that it was harming the environment and radioactive readings where being made in places as far of as Fiji and New Zealand
France stud by their claims that no harm was being caused but agreed to move their testing further underground. In 1985 Greenpeace launched a campaign to try to stop the testing all together at which point 2 French secret service men detonated bombs below sea level intending to sabotage the Warrior.
Unfortunately, the bombs did more than just sabotage the protest, they sank the Warrior drowning Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira who was on board at the time.
The 2 secret service men were caught and sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the French government intervened and used all its international muscle to have them serve their sentences on a French Pacific island. The service men where also honoured upon their return to France after serving just 2 years of their sentence.
It was all over the news at the time.
In 1995 France announced a further series of tests to take place, which saw Greenpeace duly despatch Rainbow Warrior II. The French Navy impounded the vessel on the tenth anniversary of the sinking of the original Warrior.
In early 1996 the French finally agreed to stop testing in the Pacific.

Jaime climbed the memorial hill itself and took some lovely photos for us. The wreck of the Warrior itself is around 20 miles out to shore and can be dived with scuba gear.

In the afternoon, we decided to head back to Paihia. Jaime jumped on a ferry to the little bay Russell and I had leisurely afternoon filled with reading and some sneaky Christmas shopping.
For the evening we decided to head back to our previous nights campsite that was located just 2km outside of Paihia. The campsite was lovely, directly by the river (very few sandfly), with a pool, trampoline and flying fox (mini zip-wire).

Jaime also decided to dip his toe in the river, but after an unfortunate slip on the oh so slippery rocks he dunked himself in to waist level and soon changed his mind.

Day 57 Purple Toes, The Store and Waterfalls
We carried on north and decided to stop of at the oldest stone building in New Zealand. The building was from around the 18 hundreds, old for NZ standards, called The Store, but seen as the last house I lived in in England was built in 1809 we didn’t feel too impressed.
There were some nice looking gardens on the other side of a small river which we decided to wade through. Unfortunately, the rocks were again very slippery and this time I stubbed the toes of my left foot. Autsch!
We wandered on to the Rainbow Falls where Jaime decided to mostly stay behind the safety barriers for once. In the meantime one of my toes had started turning blue and purple and we feared it may be broken. As it was a Sunday we gave it a half hearted attempt to find an A&E department, but as we were in a fairly remote place soon gave up. The toe is mostly recovered but I will defiantly be more careful when it comes to slippery slidy rocks from now on.

Day 58 Ahipara Sandunes
We drove on to a little village called Ahipara on the West coast. Ahipara is most famous for is large sandunes and sand tobogganing. As my toe was still playing up we decided against trudging up and down the dunes, but Jaime still went for a little walk among the dunes.
The campsite we stayed at was fun, with lovely art all over the walls and a roaring fireplace.

Day 59 Kauri Trees & Kai Iwi Lakes
Today we visited several beautiful Kauri trees including the incredible Lord of the Forest, the 4 Sisters and the Father of the Forest. Aptly named by the local Mauri.
The kauri trees were located in some beautiful bush forests which provided an atmospheric and very peaceful location for spending some time.
Later that day we stopped at the Kai Iwi Lakes, some lovely sand dune lakes with a basic campsite. Unfortunately the site was quite busy, but I still enjoyed a little swim in the lake (too cold for the Jaimster teehee).

Day 60 Rain & Auckland
So its nearly Christmas and we have gone full circle around both island now. What to do….. mmmhh
We head back for Auckland to give ourselves some time to think. Its raining again and the camper is getting in a bit of state.
We make ourselves a nice dinner to cheer up and decide to head south again the next day.





Day 61 Christmas Eve
Its Christmas Eve and we are rather miserable. Its raining heavily and we have ended up on horrid campsite in a seaside village called Raglan.
We try to treat ourselves with some take away pizza which also ends up being horrid - too many olives yuk.
Not the way you would imagine Christmas to take place in New Zealand. We were thinking BBQ’s on the beach or maybe some bungy jumping over bullers gorge….big sigh and Merry Christmas.

Day 62 Christmas Day
Merry Christmas Everyone, I have just spoken to my family and it was lovely to hear all their happy voices.
Jaime gave me a lovely necklace for Christmas. Oh and a purple trinket box, and a hammerhead shark and a jade tail necklace…….
How can I be grumpy anymore after all that.?!
We decide to head back down South for the remainder of our time here and have booked ourselves into a lovely campsite called Juno Hall near Waitomo Caves.
Tomorrow we are heading back to Wanganui and Sunday we have booked onto a river rafting tour for the day. Then its over to Tongario Crossing where we are making a second attempt to make the hike up to the volcano (hope the weather holds this time) and then finally back to Auckland where we will be swimming with sharks and stingray.
Yep, we are back on track and having fun!!
Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas and I really hope I’m the first but not the last to wish you a very happy new year. Xxd

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