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  • Amanda Davidson

New Zealand

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  • Amanda DavidsonNew ZealandTraveler

    Cape Reinga

    February 8, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    We continued along highway 12 to Paihia where we filled up again and not long after we stopped for some lunch on the side of the road. We had a freaky lady try talk smack to us haha was so weird. We then continued up highway 1 where we stopped in Kaitaia for a short while. From Kaitaia we headed up to Cape Reinga which took us roughly 2 hours as we stopped off at a few look outs along the way. We finally reached Cape Reinga which was so beauitful! There were several sand dunes around which looked amazing. It was so cold and wet here and even started to rain whilst we were walking to the look out. We hiked up this small mountain which was amazing, so windy though I thought we would fall of the mountain and die. The wind was easily over 80km up there. After we took some snaps we headed to the light house. The light house was amazing as it had all these signs which pointed the way of several countries around the world. At the light house you could see where The Pacific Ocean meet the Tasman Sea, this was awesome!! We then headed back to Kaitaia where we thought there would be showers but unfortunately they were closed by the time we arrived which was annoying as we were drowned rats. We then grabbed a quick feed at McDonalds (again lol) as our chicken was hot because the fridge didnt work - boo!! After a yummy McDonalds feed we headed to Taipa where we found a cool beach cove where we parked for the night.Read more

  • Amanda DavidsonNew ZealandTraveler

    Heading up North

    February 8, 2018 in New Zealand

    Woke up from our scary night in the carpark about 7:30am. We then headed to the local toilets to get changed before we were on our way. We first headed up the south highway where we were last night. We decided to stop off at Lake Taharoa where we ate some cocopops over looking the lake. We then continued our journey up through Aranga Beach and onto Waipoua Forest. The forest was really lush and thick not to mention very windy. We turned off several short gravel roads where there were a few good look out points. One we went along for about 5kms and then climbed a small firemans lookout, to be honest the view was rubbish and we were pretty cold. The weather today was terrible, high winds and very cold. We then continued though the forest where we stopped off at a river running next to the road. The next stop in Waipoua Forest was Kuri Tree where we hiked about 100 meters to the largest tree in New Zealand - Lord of the Forest. This tree was epic!!! Tane Mahuta is where the tree was located in Waipoua Forest. We then continued on along highway 12 to Opononi where we stopped at several amazing look outs here sand junes and mountains were right next to one another, insane view! One of the look outs was called Arai-Te-Uru Recreation Reserve which over looked Hokianga Harbour near Opononi. We filled up for the first time at Opononi which was $2.26 a liter.Read more

  • Amanda DavidsonNew ZealandTraveler

    Van Collection Day

    February 7, 2018 in New Zealand

    Woke up again early from Chris's alarm lol then finally fell back asleep. We both properly woke up around 8:30am showered and then started packing. We left our appartment about 10:45 and headed to the city center where we thought we would get a taxi. We then decided to walk to the bus stop however we got lost for a little while. We finally found a stop and hopped on heading back to the airport. After about 45 minutes we were at the airport waiting for a juicy shuttle to take us to collect our van. Had a quick maccaz and we were on our way. Signing the paper work only took us roughly 5 minutes, the lady who helped us was super helpful and chucked in a free dvd player and some dvds. They showed us the van and how everything worked then we were on our way. We decided to go get some essentials before we hit the road. We went to The Warehouse and bought several things and then headed to Woolworths to buy enough food for 3-4 days. We decided we should see the top of Auckland first so started heading towards the Bay of Islands. We headed from Auckland airport to Helensville and then headed to Warkworth and upto Wellsford and then onto Ruawal. We first stopped near Warkworth were we went off road and took some photos up a mountian. We nearlly died here from my attempt to 3 point turn on a cliff haha. We then stopped around Ruawal where we made some sandwiches, the view was amazing here - we were over looking hills, the ocean and a huge mountain. We continued onto Dargaville were we half set up the camper and had a short stop. It was now getting fairly cold and dark so we decided to go only a little further. By now it was about 9:30pm and we were at Baylys Beach. We were going to stay there however the camp site was $40 I think not lol. After about half an hour driving trying to figure out where to stay we went back to Dargaville and parked in a carpark at the back of the local shops. It was then nighty night for us as we were super tired.Read more

  • Amanda DavidsonNew ZealandTraveler

    Auckland Museum and Mt Edin

    February 6, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    The day was a slow start due to Mandy being tired lol. Opened the blinds to see where the loudspeaker announcements were coming from. We found a cruise ship docked literally next to the appartment!! After showering we made our way down to the wharf where we found an info booth, we took a lot of brochures and booked the war museum tour. We decided to walk to the war memorial. We got lost a couple of times but found our way to Queen St where we went to a few stores, we didnt buy anything though lol. We found our way to the war memorial walking through Auckland University and Albert Park. We spent about 3 hours at the museum, which was a great insight into maori culture and the world wars, Chris also found his dad in one of the vietnam war books which was quiet humbling. We had lunch at the museum Chris had a salad sandwich and ginger and apricot slice, Mandy opted for the chicken burger and chips. After we left the meuseum we walked to burger king for ice cream. We were planning on walking to Mt Eden however decided to catch the bus as our feet were sore. We caught a bus to Mt Eden area where we walked up to the summit of a inactive volcano, the view was great. Once we finished there we then caught the bus down to sky tower for a look. We then walked down the the wharf and checked out the menus of all the restaurants, we decided to order food at a place called the fox. We both ordered the chicken parmy, which was the smallest parmy we had ever had lol we then went and got ice cream again. The main flavor we got was kiwi fruit, it was quiet nice. After ice-cream we headed back to our appartment were we watched all our videos from the day as well as some foxtel before bed.Read more

  • Amanda DavidsonNew ZealandTraveler

    Take Off!!

    February 5, 2018 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 22 °C

    05.02.18 the day we finally leave for New Zealand.
    Chris woke up at 5am and went into work to finalise a few things. When he got back I woke up and we started to pack. Of course Chris hadn't packed his bags yet. Once we showered and packed Chris's dad took us to the airport. At this stage we were definitly getting excited. We arrived at the airport at roughly 10:30am after checking in we had a look at the shops for a while. We bought a memory stick for the go-pro and had some yummy subway. After a short delay we started boarding around 12:30 and take off was just after 1:00pm.
    We had some average food (some chicken and veggie fried rice) on the plane and watched Thor, which was hilarious if you ask me. After just over 3 hours we arrive close to 8:00pm. We got our phone sims sorted and made our way out of the airport. After about half an a hour on the shuttle bus we were at some corner shop in Aucklands city centre collecting the keys from a random guy, very strange. The shuttle driver then dropped us down the road at our whalf appartment. Our appartment was on the top level and we had the best views over looking the entire harbour! We relaxed for a little and showered, Chris then fell asleep lol. I bought some uber eats which I hadn't done before - the McDonalds here was delish. After some fatty food we then headed to bed. Cant wait for the adventures to start tomorrow!    Read more

    Trip start
    February 5, 2018
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