Waitangi National Trust & Treaty House North Island

Entry containing 139 photos titled: NZ_110606

Today's main goal was to study for our NZ BFR (biennial flight review), This is the required check for validating our US licenses so we can fly a NZ registered aircraft in the Air Safari. However we started by doing a temperature check of the bay at 7:00 am. We beat a hasty retreat to warm showers followed by a great breakfast on the balcony.Then …

So we made it to Dargaville, in a fashion.

The flight from LA to Auckland was a pretty uneventful night flight; the usual film, meal, lights out,sleep. That was until the teenage boy on the row in front starting shouting in his sleep, "no, no, nooooo," waking a number of other passengers, who proceeded to scream in terror causing nightmare …

After a refreshing nights sleep and waking up at 8am (a civilised hour), walked to the kayaking hut and took 2 panoramic shots of the sea views, just wow. Three of us kayaking today plus the instructor, Deanna, who turns out to be the co-founder of the business some 25 years ago, very inspiring person, had the idea for the business with her husband …

Had another good day – mostly sunshine – a bit windy and then the heavens opened late this afternoon.

We left Russell this morning after having had a good night at the campsite – met loads of other Brits who were cooking dinner so ate with everyone else and swapped experiences. One guy was from Guisborough in North …

Visited exquisite culture show in the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and learned a great deal from the guide about the Maori/English history, he put it across in a way that suited everybody there. Very descriptive talk and a memorable experience . Then the cultural show which blew us away. It was hardly a performance, more so the real welcoming peace …

We left Paihia this morning and headed a few minutes down the road to the Waitangi Treaty House. As we walked through the native NZ bush, we saw lots of tuis and even a wood pigeon.

We saw the large waka (Maori canoe) and then walked to the Treaty House and flagpole. What an amazing view from there across to Paihia. We walked through the …

Sunday, October 7^th we left Whitianga and headed up to Paihia, in the famous Bay of Islands. They are well known as one of the most beautiful places in New Zealand, and the area certainly lived up to that reputation. We rode all the way out of Coromandel, through Auckland and far north. We had to pay a toll, which I thought was pretty …

Ohne den Wecker zu stellen, schafften wir es wiederum nicht, frühzeitig aus den Federn zu kommen. Auch in der Nacht regnete es nonstop und wir waren einmal mehr froh, die luxuriöse Campingvariante gewählt zu haben. Nach dem Frühstück und den aufgrund der sumpfigen Umgebung etwas umfangreicher ausfallenden Reinigungsarbeiten im und um unseren Wagen …

So I woke up feeling totally fine considering the amount of lager I had drank the night before. Most of the people that was on my bus up from Auckland yesterday had all gotten up really early as they were going even further north on a trip up to the very top of the North Island, Cape Reinga. I was doing this trip on the Wednesday – tomorrow, …