Petite Provence North Island

... in her head quite well. We came out of the shop with 2 My Little Ponies, 2 fairies and some Littlest Petshop. Lucy and Dan then spent the journey back home ripping the boxes open in the back of the car!

For her birthday tea, Larissa, Brent, Emily and Issy came over. Lucy really enjoyed it as it gave her another chance to show the girls her toys and her new bedroom. They bought Lucy a netball ring which is now up on the wall on the ...

... Wir wollen gleich weiter fahren, nach Parakai, und fuer 2 Naechte bei unsere Wwoofing-Familie bleiben (ein richtiges Bett, nette Menschen, eine richtige Dusche, leckeres Essen)
Von da aus planen wir weiter nach Coromandel zu fahren und dort moechte ich mir einen Job suchen,, ich hoffe das klappt...
Heute haben wir unsere 1000 km Marke ueberfahren... also schon ein ganzes Stueck zurueck gelegt...
Bis bald wieder...

... mo). We went to a car auction last Wed & had a great time watching all the business taking place. It was also quite amusing for me watching Leszek try and talk to me without using his hands or nodding - we almost bought 3 vehicles by accident...

A big congrats to Magdalena & Milo on their recent wedding. Sorry to have missed it & hope you had a wonderful day. We wish you all the best for the future & look forward to seeing you next year ...

... talk about a monopoly on the market - this I'm not looking forward to. I cruised up and down the main street that night, there were so many bars and pubs there i couldn't decide which one to go into so i just went back to the Backpackers and went to bed. The next few days I spent with Tanja, a German friend I'd met in London, she came down out of the hills from Arthurs Pass in a tiny little camper-van. She drove me out to Akaroa Harbour on the Banks Peninsular. Pretty scenic out ...

... here compared to when we were at Cathedral Cove. The weather was ideal for a lunch on the beach, so we stopped by SubWay to get some sandwiches and drinks and headed for sun, sea and sand :D We were actually quite grateful that there were a few clouds in the sky anyway, as when the sun was not obscured it really beat down on us and we started scurrying for the shade :P The pictures might give a wrong impression, but the ...

Arriving in Auckland was a bit nerve racking due to my previous with the customs officials so I was not pleased to yet again get sent to the queue for bag searching and boot cleaning. Being stuck behind a Canadian rugby team who looked like they had just stepped off a waterlogged pitch didn't ease my passage either. Fortunately the officials passed my boots and I was let off with only my bag ...

In the morning we went to Cape Rodney - a marine reserve more commonly referred to as Goat Island after the island just off shore. This is renowned as a snorkelling beach and was the busiest beach we had visited while in New Zealand by far. The snorkelling was a bit of a disappointment. There were shoals of some quite large fish (maybe 40cm long) but nothing very ...

... 4m in diameter. Kauri trees are not the tallest in the world but they produce the largest volume of timber per tree with long straight trunks of wide girth. In the event, we saved ourselves the 100km+ detour to the west coast because we came across a sign to Puketi Kauri Forest just north of Kerikeri on the SH10. We took the gravel road to this forest and the short board walk at the Manginagina Scenic Reserve through the forest to view the trees. The board walk ...

Heute morgen konnte ich zum Glueck aus dem ACB auschecken und nachdem ich mir den Tag in Auckland in Cafes, Internetcafes und Informationscentern vertrieben habe, hat Logan mich um 17.30 Uhr mitgenommen zu seinen Eltern nach Warkworth. Die sind total nett und ich darf ueber's Wochenende bleiben! Am Freitag hat Cindy, Logans Mum, mich in Algies Bay gefahren. Dort trainiert Logan mit seinem Team fuer die Regatta dieses Wochenende, die sein Vater organisiert. Dort hatte ...

Whew, finally a second to breathe..the last few weeks in New Zealand have been a total blur. After an unsuccessful attempt to climb the glacier due to rain, we finally made it back to Christchurch and the rain welcomed us there as well. After an interesting and at times awkward experience staying at an all female hostel, we were back to the North Island. (note to self:avoid female hostels, you WILL be ...