Adventures in New Zealand

An open-ended adventure by Theresa Read more

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Trip start
January 31, 2018
Adventures in New Zealand Traveler
New Zealand
February 1, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
So we land in New Zealand, and what's the first thing that happens on our adventure? I get done for 'smuggling' an apple through customs- long story short given it (29th) on airplane from HR put it in a bag and forgot about it. Skip forward to the 1st and 3 days no decent sleep & 01.30am not really thinking straight although a $400 fine soon woke me up.

So strong coffee and loads of tissues (for me) later and Colin had written letter of appeal instead of our plan on trying to nap on airport floor.

Best part of day was seeing christy (with Laura & Franklin) waiting for us at the airport. We went off for an amazing brekky before being taken to our Airbnb where we grabbed a short nap before exploring the area of raumati.

Popped into bev and daves in the evening which surprisingly is just in next road to gillians. We only stayed a short while as could barely keep eyes open, but we met Susan bridesmaid and bestman daves Bro and had bite to eat.Read more
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New Zealand
February 2, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
We chose an ace of an Airbnb hosted by Gillian, who was lovely and we felt at home in no time at all.

Christy picked us up and took us on a quick tour of welly. First stop was Ta Papa museum where we saw an excellent display about Gallipoli, with huge lifelike models made by Weta studios would have loved to spent longer at the museum but we wanted to see a bit of the city before we headed back to get ready for evening meal with the wedding guests.

So great seeing Bro. Zoey and hope again. A lovely Thai meal was followed by few drinks at the boundary tap before a chilly walk home.Read more
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Wedding 1920 style
February 3, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C
The reason we decided to come to NZ our friend bevs wedding. After the appalling rain the day before the wedding day was bright and sunny. Held on the beach side decorated by the talented bev herself. Then onto the Boundary Tap for the reception... Where too many drinks were had... Is there such a thing as too many?Read more
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Niece's pad
February 4, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C
Off to visit Hope and Mike today. Bit of long journey but nice way to see the area. Went through one if the prettiest towns I've ever seen called Grey Town would been nice to stopped but no time.

Hope has by far the biggest dog I've ever seen, I've ridden horses smaller. And slobber yuk. Lots of it. So glad I took my waterproof gear.

Ended the evening with Colin and I having a Maylasian meal nice but very expensive.Read more
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Off we go..... Or maybe not?
February 5, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C
So we start our journey from welly up to the North. Didn't start well, OH taken wrong out of date driving licence all I could hear was "sorry sir you can't drive on tht" now at tht moment in time I had two choices thump the hell out of him (he had two jobs 1. Passport 2. Drivers licence, no way could I do all the driving) Or cry.i decided cry n swear was best optioned. Once calmed down a thought came to me "can you not use his international drivers license" yes they could, why on earth he didn't think of this n just left it for me to sort out I don't know.

So arrived at daughters to pick her n her friend up to find due to an accident we couldn't get out of welly. Great start.

So off to supermarket stocked up. And waited for road to open. Van is a 7m (bigger than we use to) n slow, very slow. But it had quite bit of room inside, we hoped as yet to unpack.

Made it as far as national army museum wanted to get further but I was hungry, tired and wanted to get the bags unpacked. Nice freedom site. No open toilet but fantastic views n security.

Waiting for tea to be cooked by Laura... Off to get beer out now.Read more
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Spring day.
February 6, 2018 in England ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C
We woke after a brilliant night's sleep to really miserable grey wet cold day... Just ripe for a day of outside activity. Luckily as we headed north the sun shone.

We passed mount doom with rainbow near it and made way to lake taupo where we had brilliant breakfast of different types of beans n egg cooked by our chef Laura.

After that we headed for huka falls, beautiful but very busy so whistle stop then headed for wai o tapu, this was brilliant so beautiful but so deadly. Its amazing to think that is the kind thing that is under the earth.

We eventually met up with our friend Tim, who kept receiving messages of the next meeting place but as he'd not caught up we kept moving on. It was great seeing him again.

So then it was off to luge. Birthday day pressie from daughter to me n Colin. Brilliant fun, until lap 3 christy badly crashed n Colin got caught in crossfire with her cart flying into him. Resulted in bruises for christy, nasty cuts for Colin, cracked screen for Tim as it was in christy bag, however, every cloud and all that meant i came 3rd instead of last.

We were exhausted by evening, thankfully Tim found us a great overnight spot by side rotura LakeRead more
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To the beach
February 7, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Breakfast at our overnight carpark camp site was nice would hav been nicer without the sulphur smells but you can't hav everything. Christy n Colin showered in the oilly smelly lake.

Made way to tauranga to the beach.... Along two toll roads which didn't even take us to beach! Do wish companies would update their sat nav.

Eventually got there in pm to brilliant sunshine. Chairs out. Beer and kindle in hand I sat to some relaxed reading and promptly feel asleep. The others gone on beach swimming in the surf.

Very chilled pm, with more beers n cheese n biscuits.Read more
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Mountain high.
February 8, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Left the beach late morning to go hiking up mount maunganui... Ok so it wasn't high, but to this unfit old person it bloody was. Note made more exercise when back home.

Nice views from top but it was no lions heads in SA.

Then made our way to matamata for hobbiton tomorrowRead more
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Frodo n Co
February 9, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 18 °C
Stayed in a great low cost site tower museum $12 with electric.

Hobbiton was great. Yes very commercial but what a business for the farming family the Alexander's. Unfortunately it poured down, but it didn't spoil the day. The houses are just props really only goin back about metre. Inside scenes were filmed in welly. But it was great recognising areas in the film. Including Sam wise house.

Tour ended in the green dragon where you're given a drink.. We all had the cider which I'm sure tasted better from the hobbit mug.

Actually l lied as the tour ended in the gift shop... This time I bought some things namely my traditional mug tht I purchase on my travels.

Afterwards made a very long hour journey (you would think hire comp would ensure their sat nav are up to date?) towards waitomo for tomorrow cave trip.Read more
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The upside down
February 10, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Stayed in another amazing freedom site called roselands. In the woods at the back there were glowworms, i kept popping out tryin to see when they were coming out, by 21.00 I got Colin to come n see them as there were a few more then. It was very slippery in the woods n of course I fell n got muddy.

Another dreadfully wet day but for once it didn't matter too much as we were going down under.

Off for caving and tubing. It was amazing I've never seen anything like this before. I descended the 7m ladder first so was down there on my own for period. I turned my torch off and could see glowworms shining thr the darkness.

We waded thr runny water. Water we couldn't touch the ground. On inner tubes... Let's just say I'm not a natural on tht part. We swam and we went fast down pinball ally. It was brilliant but my god I was really tired afterwards.Read more
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Spa day
February 12, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
After having to put earplugs in overnight as the rainfall was so loud we were woken to the most beautiful view.

Headed off to hot water beach where you did holes in sand to allow the hot spring water through... Omg it was hot. I couldn't believe how water tht hot could be found on the beach and the contrast between that and the cold rough seas was very evident.

After tht the long trek to cathedral cove. We had hoped to do the snorkel trail at gemstone Bay but sea was mucky n swells. Headed onto sting Ray Bay but didn't even go down to beach just viewed it on the rocks.

Cathedral cove was pretty but again water disappointing I was expecting turquoise water not the mucky tea colour.

The hike there n back was hard going... Well for me. Decided to make our way towards paihia and stopped at a beautiful beach called Ray rest, which was covered on loads n loads of sea shells n hardly any lsand seen.Read more
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Good bye for now.
February 12, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C
Today we say bye (again) to my daughter and her friend. I shall miss her and Laura cooking but be so good to get the van to ourselves, we can keep our bed up, we hav more space for things and more importantly not feel bad doing things we want to do n worry tht they don't want to.

I treated us all to a fab breakie at $91 it should be good. We dropped them off at bus station n we headed to coramamdelRead more
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Castaway
February 14, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
We've driven up for 7hrs hours to paiha to dive rainbow warrior. Arrived at dive centre at 7.45. Taken the 45 mins to boat launch beach. After dive brief the rib was launched n we all jumped it.

Excited to dive this wreck, to find after few moments the engine cut out and would not start. After few phone calls n more fiddling with the engine it was decided it was well dead n we needed to wait for pick up.

3 girls decided to snorkel in, the rest of us stayed on boat it took them over an hour to get on shore.

Dive centre owner eventually turned up n towed us in.

Got back to van at 15.45 bloody long wasted day. We decided to head to poor knights site n dive tht tomo.

Getting more n more frustrated with this tripRead more
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Poor knights-bucket list
February 15, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C
So after our disaster of not getting to dive the rainbow we headed to tutukaka to dive poor knights a day earlier than planned.

We found a fantastic freedom site over looking the bay, and which we ended up staying there 3 nights. I loved this area the houses were amazing and helped by a good helping of sunshine.

We arrived at the dive centre bright and excited, this trip was on hard boat and diving with dive tutukaka. We had an amazing skipper! Steve, who took us of a tour of islands and some history of them. We also were taken into the world's largest sea cave.

So the dives. Wow just wow. Water not too cold 21. Viz not too shabby. Saw load of rays. Scorpionfish. Kingfish. Huge emperors. As well as lot of others that weren't too skittish.

We enjoyed it so much decided to dive again tomorrow. And the best bit.... Not rushing back to van to move onto somewhere else.Read more
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Happy birthday to me
February 16, 2018 in England ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C
What a great place to spend a birthday. Sun shining. Blue skies n seas.

Today we did one of my top ten dives. We went along a wall explored an arch but creme de le creme was going into a cave. There were balls of damsel fish which were amazing to watch then a kingfish came up between them. The best bit was just Colin and I being there as we decided to dive unguided. The damsel n kingfish (which was pretty huge) were joined by rays.

We then went up to roof area where there is an air bubble.. The acoustics in this was pretty spectacular.

The evening we spent a rare time eating out.... Well it was my birthday... Pizza over looking the marina.Read more
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Goat Island
March 12, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 15 °C
First stop was Whangarei Falls. Quite a pretty waterfall and walk. Nice being able to make these impromptu stops now that rain has held off.

Original plan was to hire kit and dive at Goat Island but we didn't arrive until afternoon so too late to arrange. The water didn't even look good enough for us to warrant getting snorkle gear out even though there were quite few in the water I think we've now just been far too spoilt with what we get wet in.

Goat island is a very beautiful area, although the road we took getting down to it was precarious to say the least. The island is even close enough to swim out to, but we were happy exploring the area on foot. The rock pools were filled with crystal clear water. Lots and lots of beautiful shells but not much evidence of other life.Read more
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So we sadly come to the end
April 1, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
Our last night in NZ was spent in Howick visiting the lovely Caldwells. Who took us out for what must be one of the best Thai meals. Just down the road from them was a beach and plenty of parking.... So finished our trip how we like it.... By the sea.

NZ we miss you, but not the rain or the apples. 😀Read more
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Ps.... KL lay-over
April 1, 2018 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
So we had an 18 between flights... So made the most of KL, and Colin visiting his childhood. First stop Batu cave home of the 5 legged cow (since dead) Colin was surprised at the development here, as a child it was mainly fields. There are 272 steps to climb before heading into this remarkable Temple and well worth the visit. The visit was made by going into the Dark Cave which was a 45min tour around labyrinth of very dark caves with interesting flora & fauna.

A quick visit was made to Low Yat plaza where we were disappointed to find electronic goods were not much cheaper than home. Found a local restaurant for lunch and had amazing nasi goreng (of course what else would we choose?) for less than tenner.

Then long wet (yep it was raining) to KL towers and Petronas tower (this one was shut unfortunately) but we did go thr the shops underneath it and wow, every designer brand going, all I could afford was new Pandora.

To finish off (our trip completely) we went round Central Market, now these prices were more our style. In the taxi on way back to airport we passed the first place Colin stayed in as a kid on his way to maylasia, the Old a railway station.

So lots new memories made but old ones revisited as well.Read more
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