A day in Taupo

Well all the photos above are showing our day in Taupo. The first is on me in 'enry' have we spent too much money!! The next is our living space, we are still married although space is small.  It is very comfortable.
Today we walked from our campsite to Taupo and had a good look round.,  It is a very pretty town right on the edge of the lake.  We found the tourist info and got booked on a lake trip to see Maori carvings in the banks of the lake.  We took the Ernest Kemp, pictured above.  It is a paddle steamer and chugs along.  What we didn't expect what cam e next!  In the calm waters of the harbour we chugged along and then we hit the lake.  It is a massive place,the size of the Greater London area without the population.  We seemed to be tossed about all over the place.  The lake is the creator of a volcano which erupted in 186ad and the eruption was seen from China and from Rome.  Lets hope it doesn't go again!  We had crossing swells which means that as one roll finishes another starts.  Needless to say I was not a happy bunny...We managed to see the carvings but unfortunately the boat had to turn that time across all the waves and all I did was hang on..David took the pictures.  Once on the way back we went into bays and it got a lot calmer.  Not a trip for the faint-hearted!!  The area has two active volcanos although they havn't erupted for about 150 years. That is the picture no. 4.  Tomorrow we are undecided what to do as we wanted to do the Forgotton Highway, but it would mean a drive of 260km, so just a place too far, maybe next time.  There are plenty of walks to do around the lake and on Friday before we leave we are going to Huka Falls on a river trip(not so rough I hope..)  I have just read about your weather, sorry, we are still in the warm sunshine, so I won't rub it in..

Rotorua to Taupo

Well the above picture is of a giant redwood and looks like two giants underneath it.  It was the camera angle, really it was, we have actually lost weight through all the walking and the salads we eat every night. We left Rotorua and made our was via Hamilton to a coastal bay on the west coast.  The journey was very windy again and going through lovely forests and hardly a car in sight.  A bit different from UK.  The place we visited was Kawhia.  It was very quiet but a very big bay.  The children have gone back to school so it was virtually empty.  We found  a cafe open and had a toastie and coffee and then went for a walk long the edge of the bay.

We then started our journey to Taupo, which seemed quite near, but our sat nav lady thought different and was going to take us through mountainous roads again, so I directed David onto the highway, whether or not we lost time we do not know, but we arrived in Taupo at about 6.30 very tired.  But hey, what a lovely spot we have chosen. We have binned the Top Ten sites for the moment and have gone onto the Kiwi sites.  Although our time in Rotorua was much busier, the camp site was good and now we have used the same company and this one is great as well.  Very welcoming. Very clean and most of all really close to the lake.  We are going to have an easy day tomorrow with a bit of walking and then try and find the 'Forgotten Highway'  on Thurs.  The weather is still holding fine although we find the air cooling the further South we drive. Thats all for now.  Early night tonight. By the way as a finish, we had a bee in the driving cab today which made for an emergency stop...everything in the van shot forward..and then we had a wasp..but we got to that one before it got to us....

Rotorua to Taupo

A day in Rotorua

We had an early start (for us anyway).  We skyped Mike and Stuart.  It was great to see them and speak to them.  I then caught up with the washing (putting it all in one machine only to find it was broken...had to transfer to another one, although to campsite refunded my payment.  This took out more of the day than expected, so we made our way to Redwood forest and had a 2 hour (yes 2!!) walk up and down a forest trail.  It was knackering and we wil probably suffer tomorrow.

After a break we then travelled on to a buried Maouri Village.  There was a serious volcano eruption here in 1866(not long ago in volcano terms) and it buried a village which they have now excavated in parts.  It was lucky that only 17 were buried in the lava. We had a guided tour and it was well worth it.

David then decided to climb down to a waterfall 100 steps down and more importantly 100 up..after the previous exhausting walk I decided not to do it.   I am so glad because David is now double knackered..
We are having a restful evening before the drive to Taupo Lake tomorrow.  This won't take us very long so we will be able to enjoy the journey instead of our usual long haul from site to site.

By the way, weather still fantastic, sorry to rub it in.However we have been told we might get a shower on Thursday. Hard life isn't it?

Rotorua

Well we certainly had a good day today.  After listening to noisy screeching kids until gone 9.30 last night and being woken up at 7am with noisy screeching kids we asked to be moved and the camp manager was most apologetic and immediately gave us a much quieter spot.  We are now overlooking big grassy areas and bathed in sunshine all day.  After this move we went to the geyser at Te Puia Maori Village.  We were firstly entertained by Maori warriors who gave us a fine display of their cultural dancing including the Haka.  Some of the songs were familiar and it turns out that Maori first came from Tahiti, Hawaii, and other parts of Indonesia.

We then went on a guided walk and saw carving and weaving.  The next part was the geysers.  What a great sight.  They were gushing out water and steam and around were mud pools bubbling away.  The only thing was it smelt like rotten eggs in places..The whole of the village area in based on a volcanic crater area (not in working order thank goodness, although only dormant..) It showed how they cooked their food on the steam and in earlier years used the lakes to wash in.  Nothing was still there, quite awesome.  We went off on our own to explore and found many other little steam holes and mud holes just bubbling away.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and tomorrow we are going to visit a buried village and the Lake Rotorua where there is a dormant volcano in the middle.  We are also hoping to take a skyride to see the area from above.  Lets hope this warm weather continues.  Sorry to keep mentioning the weather when its freezing at home.  What a way to spend the winter and then come back in spring. Cant be bad can it?

Rotorua

The journey to Rotorua.

No pictures yet as we arrived late in afternoon.  We travelled from Manukau and made our way to Rotorua in fine weather, yes sunshine again.  We decided to go east and travel towards the Coromandel Peninsula.  It is a hot tourist spot for the New Zealanders and being a bank holiday there were more cars than normal on the road, at least three in front and three behind!  We stopped for lunch on the seafront at Whangamata where they have the being surfing in the country when the conditions are right. The sea was flat calm today and we were able to walk into the little township and have lunch.  There were lots of people enjoying the sunshine.
We made our way along the east coast going past the very heavily wooded areas of Kauri.  The forest is very tropical with lots palms and huge great trees.  Plenty of walks to try but unfortunately we couldn't stop.  It would be great to do everything,but we wouldn't have the time.  Again we chose a forestry road down to Rotorua, where we found our campsite very easily.  It is full of hot springs and thermal waters.  Our campsite has a thermal pool, which we are going to try tomorrow.  The main geysers are only 1 k away so we are off there tomorrow to take plenty of photos.

We are now going to get some well earned rest, but hey we are parked next to very noisy kids, lets hope they quieten down, or I think we will be moving spaces.

Travelling back through to Auckland.

Today was going to be a long drive so we chose to go through a very pleasant route.  Plenty of winding roads and bends (David loves these, I'm not so sure!) We drove through the forests of Waima and Waipoua.  We stopped for lunch at a place called Opononi where a dolphin stayed in the bay for 1 year allowing the children to ride on her back.  We stopped for coffee and a nice break.  The weather was crap for a change.  Plenty of low cloud and rain, but we drove through it.  The roads continued to be winding and we followed the west coast down to Paparoa where we found a lovely cafe and had a light lunch.  The weather seemed to be brightening up a bit by then.We continue to Auckland and then we hit the rush hour, yes they have one and it was also POETS day and a bank holiday as well.  Double whammy..We where now getting a bit anxious as we had to get to Manukau City to the next site so that we could meet up with Daivd's NZ cousins.  We got to the campsite at 5.30 and Davids cousin picked us up at 7.15 and took us to meet with Jenny (the other cousin) and her husband. We had a lovely meal with them and a really lovely evening catching up on all family news. And so to bed..
Double

Jimmy and Marilyns house and our home in New Zealand

Kerikeri to Auckland

Just a quite blog for this journey.  We encountered our first rain today and also our first big traffic jam.  On the way down country we drove through wonderful forests quite tropical ones.  But the rain came and so we decided to take a shorter route.  This took us 8 hours including a stop for lunch in a pretty cafe on route.  When we eventually got to Auckland we got stuck in the traffic jam.  It is holiday weekend here and I think everyone was on the road!  It was like the M25 both sides some going North for the weekend and some going South and some commuters going home! We arrived at the campsite with time to shower and change before meeting David's cousins Ken and Jenny.  What a lovely evening we had with them.  Jenny is very sweet and would love to travel to London.  We did invite her to come so I hope she makes it.  Ken was the quiet one and has done the Boyne family history.  It was very interesting to hear about all the past family, warts and all!  They took us to a club for dinner and we had a very relaxing evening.
Next stop Rotorua and the thermal spa. Can't wait, especially after a night of David's continuous snoring!  There is no place to hide yourself in a campervan...

Bay of Islands Boat trip continued

Well To continue from yesterday..We managed to trace dolphins but the captain said that they were not the usual type of dolphins and although we had the in the wake of our boat they would swim away when people got into the water.  The id not interact at all. There were a lot of disappointed people especially the kids.  But we did see a lot of them trashing about in the water.  The captain made up for it and gave the kids extra time in the boom net. This was great to watch.  As the boat could turn round on a sixpence he went round and round swishing the kids up and down the net.  Not for the faint hearted.  It was then the adults turn and he was even worse with them, together with the kids he played the domino effect where one person would stand in the middle of the net holding it tight and then letting it go and as he did everyone would land up in a heap at one end of the net. We also went to a place called the Hole in the Rock. and as the weather was very calm we were able to go through it.  Quite an experience.   We stopped for lunch on a beautiful island and had an hour.  Some people went in swimming and we just took in all the views. There had been a yacht race in the area and all the little boats were in a bay letting off steam after the event. It was great to meander through the middle of them getting cheered and being bombed by water balloons from the very merry sailors.  Lots of laughs.  We then had to make our way back.  What a wonderful day.

Bay of Islands Boat trip

Well what a glorious day.  The weather could not have been finer.  We were picked up at the campsite at 8 and taken to the ferry to pick up our boat for the day.  We had top deck seats and sailed into the bay.  The islands are fantastic and we went to Russell and then meandered through the little islands, some of which are lived on.  The captain was very good and very informative and also had a very good sense of humour.  We had the history of the Maoris and Captain Cooks story all the way through.  We had a nice family next to us who had a little girl just like Izzy same colouring and full of life.  I will continue this story tomorrow as signal is very weak and I won't be able to load any pictures. Talk tomorrow.

Oh what a lovely life

Well we had a really relaxing morning at Kerikeri and caught up on some sleep.  We went for a walk trying to find some local Stone Houses but failed miserably!  We walked and walked and couldn't find anything.  So this afternoon we decided to walk along the river and found ourselves on a golf course.  So a very easy day.  Tomorrow is the big one.  We are off early in the morning to Russell to take the boat trip for a day around the Bay of Islands.  It should be spectacular.  They won't take your money until the sailing is confirmed because they don't go out in rough seas.  It has been calm today so hopefully tomorrow will be the same. Just put in pictures of yesterday at Marpouri.  This is an inlet bay before we found the big bay and open sea.  Gorgeous place.

Matapouri

Bay of Island

Auckland

Today we left Whagarei where we stayed for one night to drive to the Bay of Islands in Northland. We had a very pleasant drive down, diverting off to Matapouri,a bay just below the Bay.  It was fantastic and the weather very hot.  We were very careful and put on the suncream but still got quite red.  The sea was very warm and the sand was so fine.  We would have like to have stayed longer but we had to get on to our next stop.  We decided to go to a place could Russell first as it had been recommended.  It is a really beautiful area and the ferrys run from there around the Bay of Islands and to look for Dolphins.  This is hopefully on our agenda.  After eating an enormous ice cream we left for KeriKeri our final destination for the day.  Unfortunately sat navs only tell you the roads to go on.  We found ourselves on a gravel road for 10k.  It was hell and everything was shaking about in the van.  It was mainly bends and up and down mountainside.  Not the best of places to be..my vocabulary was at best******poor David he did drive as best as he could.  We eventually arrived at the campside only to find that the road we should have taken was to the ferry...our dear sat nav lady couldn't travel over water!!

We finally arrived at Kerikeri and our first job was to get rid of all the grey dust in the van before we could eat.  We are planning to stay for 3 nights so at least we can relax in a really pretty part of North Island and enjoy all it has to offer.  To all those readers who have been to Cyprus,tomorrow we are going up on a road that looks like the pan handle.  Lets hope that road is better than todays...otherwise watch this space..
Thats all for today. Tomorrow we can hopefully download some pictures as I have bought another three hours wifi (nothing is for free here).


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North Island

Today we are in the top part of North Island near to the Bay of Islands.  We couldn't drive all the way from Auckland to the Bay so have stopped off in a campsite just below and will travel there tomorrow.  We have tried to download pictures but unfortunately the crappy wi fi over here (and expensive too!) does not work very fast and it takes an age to upload.  We will try again later when perhaps we can get a better connection. New Zealand has some fabulous scenery and the roads are very good, although in the campervan we are limited in our speed so we are like a snail in comparison to other vehicles..

Staying with Jimmy and Marilyn was lovely and Jimmy and I talked about our childhood together and had some really good laughs about what we got up to.  It was great to reminisce and I hope we didn't bore the pants of David and Marilyn.  They took us to Auckland and we had a very good look around the harbour which had some love yachts in.  It was still showing the signs of the Rugby World Cup and had many super bars to drink in!

I will blog again soon and hopefully will have some pics for you to catch up on.

New Zealand

Wee we are finally here.  Proper English weather too.  The flight over was very good and Jimmy and Marilyn were at the airport to meet us.  They took us to the motel and we then rested after the flight.  A lot of jet lag by now! The motel was very good and we had a good nights rest.  We then went to Jim and Marilyn's house and had a quiet day with them.  Today we went into Auckland and had brunch.  It is a lovely city and there are plenty of things to see.
 
We now feel very rested although David has picked up a cold and the first visit was to the chemist to get some lemsip!! We walked around the harbour and saw some really lovely yachts and also the rowing boat that had just completed the marathon journey.  How eight men can survive in such a small boat beggars belief! We will be downloading some pictures but unfortunately wifi here isn't so prevelant to I will have to do a catch up.

Tomorrow the holiday for real starts when we pick up our camper van.  We have been told about some lovely places to visit and so we shall venture off to the north tomorrow and start the great journey.  Will talk later.

20th January safe arrival

Well at long last we have arrived in New Zealand.  The flight changes were fantastic.  We arrived in Sydney and had to wait about 2 hours before our next flight to Auckland.  The transfers were so easy and customs weren't too bad although it looks as though Australia could be a bit long winded when we leave here.  They examine everything..

We had a really busy two days in Singapore and managed to see a lot of the sights before our feet wore out..the humidity was awful. Now we feel as though we can relax. My cousin Jimmy and his wife Marilyn were at Auckland airport to meet us.  It was great to see them after 12 years!  We are now in a motel for 1 night to get over the jet lag and then we will join then for a couple of days before setting off on the grand adventure.  35 days of complete wandering.  First impressions of New Zealand and the people are great.  Now going to get some rest to catch up with lost sleep and time.

Yesterday's photos

The boat on the roof and the famous Singapore Sling

Overslept!!

We had such plans about going for a swim before breakfast..but we only just made breakfast!  Weather here very very hot and humid and walking about is quite arduous but we have managed a fairly full day so far..we went to the famous Boat Quay and Clarke's quay where the variety of food is unbelievable. Thank goodness its too hot to think about food.  We also visited China Town which was very busy due to the Chinese New Year celebrations.  It was all hustle and bustle and selling everything.  We have now come back to the hotel and are going to have our Singapore Slings at Raffles later on this evening.  The transport system is great and we have been whizzing around on the underground and its also much cooler with all the air conditioning.

I have never seen so many shopping malls.  All the famous brands are here(even M & S) although I haven't seen a Tesco yet. There are plenty of people buying stuff as well, there is certainly no shortage of money. We saw a ship of a block of flats,very random! photo on blog later.

Singapore at last

We arrived here at 8am Singapore time we are 8 hours ahead. We are a bit tired but flight was good. Not too many bumpy bits! The weather here is very hot so when we arrived at hotel we had a quick shower and are off out to see the sights. We are going to try and stay awake for as long as possible. Will blog again later.

The Adventure

Over the upcoming 10 weeks our itinerary will be as follows:
15 January depart Heathrow for Singapore at 11.00am.
Spend 4 days in Singapore.
19 January  depart Singapore for Sydney at 7.50pm.
20 January depart Sydney for Auckland at  9.15am after a 2 hour stopover.
20 January arrive Auckland at 2.45pm local and spend I night in a hotel before moving to stay with Lorna's cousin for 2 nights.
23 January pick up the motorhome that will become our home for the next 35 days!!  No definite plans of where we will be going but will start the exploration of NZ by going north to Te Paki and 90 mile beach and the Bay of Islands - details as we go.
7 February is the only fixed point in the exploration as we take the interisland ferry from Wellington on North Island  to Picton on South Island, again no fixed plans so details as we go.
26 February depart Christchurch for Brisbane at 4.10pm arriving at 4.45 pm local time.
We spend 3 days with friends in Brisbane before picking up a hire car for our journey down Australia's Gold Coast to Sydney.
29 February collect the car and then spend the next 10 days driving down to Sydney stopping at hotels on route.
9 March stay 4 nights in Sydney to explore the sights including I hope a Bridge Walk but not for Lorna!!
13March spend the next 7 days driving down to Melbourne stopping at hotels on route.
19 March stay 5 nights in Melbourne to explore the sights.
24 March depart Melbourne for home knackered and broke.

Ready Steady....

The beginning

Well we are almost there..David and I are just putting everything we can into our spare room ready for packing. I've got miles too much!! How to you pack for such a journey? So far tempers have been kept in check, but watch this space as the time draws nearer. This week is very busy and we are writing ourselves notes so as not to forget anything (but I bet something will get missed, it always does!). Best ting we ever did was engage the services of a travel consultant.  We started off trying to map out our holiday ourselves with the help of a very good bandb guide sent directly from New Zealand, we got fed up..and it was proving to be quite costly. We were very surprised when Tropical Sky took over and away went all the worry and the price came in a lot cheaper.  The one good bit of advice came when they asked how long we had been married! We had selected a 2 berth camper van, they reckoned we would be divorced through lack of space for such a length of time. We upgraded to 4 berth for sanity!  We hope you will follow our blog and I promise to make it funny and interesting.
Next update the day before travel..will the nerves have kicked in..are we still talking to one another..but seriously, does everything fit in the cases without going over our allowance..watch this space.