Apr 13, 2013 - Hamilton Rugby

We slept in a wooden cabin when we returned from Raglan it was pretty basic but we did have a room to are self's which was a result! Today we went to watch The Chiefs vs The Reds it was very easy to get tickets and tickets only cost like £12 or so, the match was wicked much different style of rugby to in England alot more open!

Apr 28, 2012 - Glow worms

"Cool adventure," Andre FINALLY admitted after Rosy had to drag him (and bribe him with wine from Hawkes Bay) up to the North Island. Pre-glow worm incident: Before we had decided to head North to see the glowworms, we heard that glowworms could be seen on a small trail up behind our campsite, so of course we set out to see what could be seen and low and behold, and to Rosy’s immense pleasure, there were glowworms!!! The sparkle from the worms started off scarce but as we headed deeper into the forest the sparkles grew more sparkly. We...

Nov 25, 2011 - mud, sand and wind

Hi everyone Since our last contact we have visited Hells Gate, a Geothermal place that also does spa treatments. we did a mud bath and a sulphur pool which made our skin feel wonderful but not smells great! Since then we have travelled to stay with Jacqui and Kevin. So far we have been to the hot beach and dug (or should we say Kevin dug us) a hole in the sand which filled with very hot water, strange but great. We then dragged them on a long walk to cathedral cove. We then had a lovely meal in the evening with Ursula (Jacqui's mum). To...

Nov 9, 2011 - 1 Week to go...

2 and a half more days of work, then will be crazy packing and getting things ready for last trip to Taranaki in a while. Trying to finish project at work which is keeping my mind off things. Still need to sort Insurance, return ticket, $ convertions etc etc. Busy busy.

Aug 29, 2011 - NYC seeing some blue sky, me not sure

Truly the city that never sleepsThe tropical storm Irene (yep,no longer a hurricane) has dumped a lot of water, but seems to have passed NYC without the extreme damage thought possible yesterday. The Evacuation order will be lifted soon, and the Markets (Nasdaq & NY Stock Exchange) will be opening as usual on their Monday morning. I just saw a guy taking his dog for a walk (swim!)on Fox news channel. So still have to ring travel agent this morning to find out whether my flight is going, and (more importantly) expected to actually arrive in...

Aug 28, 2011 - Irene hurtling up E coast towards NY; me not going anywhere

Latest on the hurricane:Hurricane Irene charged up the US East Coast today (NZ time) towards New York, shutting down the city, and millions of Americans sought shelter from a huge storm that halted transport and caused massive power blackouts. "The storm is coming," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the more than eight million people who live in the United States' most populous city that includes Wall Street, one of the world's major financial centers. From the Carolinas to Maine, tens of millions of people were in the path of the...

Aug 27, 2011 - Goodnight Irene! I want you to go away!!

It's only two days before I'm supposed to be leaving and 300,000 people have been asked to evacuate New York City! And they're closing down the subway. A hurricane (Hurricane Irene) is heading for the Northeast, expected to hit land in North Carolina and then move on up through Washington & New York. Thousands of flights have been cancelled into the New York airports. I will ring travel agent on Monday to see if my flight from LAX to EWR is still flying. I DO NOT want to get stuck in LA!!!!

Mar 25, 2010 - Rotorua and Hamilton

Between Taupo and Rotorua the ground is covered in proof of geo-thermal activity. We find a wonderful place one hour drive off the main road with almost no tourists and take the boat over to a huge area filled with boiling mud, geysers and hot pools. In Rotorua we visit the luxury version of thermal activity at the Lake Side Spa retreat which has 4 pools of increasing temperature from 36 to 42 degrees. Katie and I sit here for more than an hour and can barely move at the end. After such pampering we linger somewhere over Cloud 9 and Frode...

Feb 23, 2010 - Way down, down along ....

Lazy River Road The Whanganui River Road to be exact. I landed in Wanganui (no h, the locals can't agree on spelling the river and the town the same way) after leaving Wellington. I wanted to get out on the river and do some exploring of the region. I booked a trip with Whanganui River Adventures for the following day. The drive from Wanganui to Pipiriki is about 2 hours along some paved and some unpaved road. It is breathtakingly beautiful. Like a trip back in time. Everything seems to have stood still along here. Amazing. After checking...

Jan 16, 2010 - Hamilton

I left Auckland quite early this morning, almost missed my bus actually. I was happy to leave the city because well, its just another city but sad to leave the hostel. I met so many awesome people and they were so fun!! I took the Inter City bus from Auckland to Hamilton which was about an hour and a half ride. The ride was pretty. Saw lots of sheep though. When I got into Hamilton, I collected my things and tried to head for the hostel. Unfortunatly nobody has heard of it so it was definatly a fun advernture with my 35 pound backpack in...

Dec 11, 2009 - Back to Work !

Hi Everyone and greetings from Auckland ! Last Sunday was my first full day in Auckland and after updating my blog. I decided to head out and explore the city. Auckland is a city of about 1.2 million people built in a bay of multiple volcanic cones. It is very spread out and as such has lots of parks and greenery in between the buidings. My first stop was The Domain which is a large park which contains loads of sportsfields, walking tracks, the Auckland Museum and some tremenduous views of the city! The museum is really big and contains a...

Jun 7, 2009 - Week 48 – Week ending 7 June 2009 – North Island, New Zealand

We woke to a sunny, windy and cool morning on Monday. It is taking us longer and longer to get going these days so we get going around 11am and head to the Hamilton Gardens. There are heaps of people out and about enjoying the sunshine and the gardens are mostly dog friendly so Logan and Poppy enjoy their walk around. The dogs weren’t allowed into the “themed gardens” so we left them in the car. The individual gardens are designed around different countries and they are lovely. We got to the Italian garden to find a guy with a ribbon tied...