Lesley's B&B Russell

Hello everyone, Thanks for your notes. It is good to hear from folks. Tonight I will try to add some photos. Yesterday ( Thursday the 26th) we finally picked up our new home away from home - an orange van called a Spaceship. It is well equipped and has some really smart features such as hidden storage compartments. We headed out of Auckland and Mike readjusted to driving from the right side. The windshield ...

... nobody shows up! So I try calling a few times and no luck. So I find the one and only internet cafe and quickly send them an email letting them know i've arrived and hopefully to meet them tomorrow. It then turns out that the guy from the cafe is Dutch and when he finds out that I intend to spend the night in a hostel he offers for me to stay with him and his wife. A really sweet offer and as this is NZ also safe lol. So suddenly I find myself in NZ ...

... a day of fresh air. Mabel x Ok, lets put the record right, Mac would have been ok if Mable wasn't driving the 10 year old Toyota Starlett like her old MX5. It rolled like a cork in a storm! Lucky Mac didn't have any breakfast so there was nothing to come up. The road gave them many kodak moments AND the ferry was NOT clearly marked on the map, it was obviously some well kept local secret, so there! Russell was lovely, had the nicest Police ...

... a grill and grilled up some sausages. After lunch, the weather got worse and it started to rain, so we just headed back to port. But on the way, we ran into another small pod of dolphins and I stood outside in the pouring rain to watch them a bit. All in all, it was an OK day. The bay would probably have been more beautiful in nicer weather, but it was nice to boat around with some dolphins. I was happy to get off that boat though!

... it into art, culture and history. the first stop was at Kawakawa to view the toilet block, with its ceramic columns, garden roof and curving, colourful exuberance (or that's what the information leaflet says, anyway) - and they are spectacular, particularly on a rainy grey day. It takes a while to realise that the tree coming out of the rool isn't planted on top ot it after all, but that the block has been built ...

... roads. We found the right way, but weren't too enthusiastic as we didn't know how long it would be, but the road (from what we remembered from our inward journeys) involved the walking up and down of many hills. Carmel was not on board with that plan, and promptly flagged down a passing German man and his young son to beg for a lift back to the beachfront where our hostel is. He was a lovely man, and returned us to the beach, whereupon we ...

... de Maori's naar Nieuw Zealand kwamen. Het historische huis waar James Busby de treaty heeft geschreven en een Maori community house. Woensdag 16 Juli Vandaag ga ik naar Russel. Russel is een klein plaatsje tegenover Paihia. Dit plaatsje is erg klein en nog meer 'laid back' dan Paihia. Russel bestaat voornamelijk uit vakantie huisjes van rijke Nieuw Zealanders en buitenlanders ...

... hanging out on the beaches and do some snorkeling with the dolphins up there Well, no chance! Since we left Auckland on Saturday morning it oured down rain, the sun wouldn' t even come out at all! How frustrating! We were sitting there in Paihia and of course, there was nothing happening .. nothing, zero, nada! At night, the whole place was just empty! Oh well, so we sat there in this nice ...

Kuna me jahti ei rentinud, siis lebotasime pikalt ja sõitsime Russelli. Sinna saab Paihiast autoga kas väga pika ringiga või praamiga. Praamisõit kestis vaid 10 min ja 2 praami saalisid pidevalt kahe sadama, õigemini kaldtee vahet. Kuna tõusud ja mõõnad on suure amplituudiga, siis klassikalise kai asemel on kaldtee. Praami otsad on sarnase kaldega, et saab sõita kaldtee peale. Praamil puudub vöör ja ahter, kuna alus on mõlemat pidi ühesugune ning sõidab just sedapidi, kumb ots parasjagu s ...

... because the clouds cleared again, and we all laid back and did some first class sun-bathing, which was - as you can imagine - EXTREMELY tiring ;)

Oh give me a break, I did make the effort to take some photos as we made our way back to port!





Mike and his family sail around the world each ...