Riverdale Farm Bed & Breakfast Whangarei

... br>I had been told that the ice cream in NZ is delicious - something about the fat content being higher... Whangarei is known for its fudge so I opted for some Flavourama aka ice cream with little fudge bits whipped into it. Yum!

As I'm sure you've gathered by now I am intrigued by New Zealand's flora. There is a really cool fernery and cacti room in town, so of ...

Woke up to light rain in karikari. Packed up camp quickly and headed north to kataia. Stopped at an info center and booked poor knights dives tomorrow!!! Headed north from there and the rain just got worse and worse. Had a look at 90mile beach(or what we could see of it throught the fog).Stopped at the puer white silica rarawa beach on the east coast, which was very nice, but rainy and ...

... ya, this flexibility thing is a must have when you're here. Like most of my entries, the meaning of the title becomes relevant about half way through. The Surf stands for the scuba diving, and the Turfstands for the rodeo/hiking... pretty clever ehh? I bet you thought I went to some nice seafood restaurant or something... tricked ya. There were a good amount of people at the rodeo... people gathered and ate corndogs on the hillside overviewing the ...

... bus pickup point back to the hostel, pretty hard going as the backpack I have is quite heavy and its boiling hot. End the day playing 5-a-side football with Jon the hostel owner in some little local friendly league, then head into town for a curry. Heading north tomorrow. I hope all the places I visit arent as great as this because if I end up not wanting to leave everywhere I go its going to be bloody murder.

After years of reading about it we finally got to dive the Poor Knights Islands, excellent! If it was good enough for Cousteau, it's good enough for us! And it didn't disappoint. We set off in the dive boat and were even entertained by a pod of playful dolphins along the way. The diving was spectacular, so much so that we stopped off for a few more dives on our way back down to Auckland.

... an outdoor pool, and spa area, and also a spa bath in the apartment as well. Lovely! We sent my parents off to visit the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and Hururu Falls, whilst we walked down to Paihia town centre to book a cruise for Sunday. Sunday morning we were picked up from the hotel and taken to the wharf where we boarded our boat, ready for a day out on the water. We were on the Cream Trip Cruise and ...

... who would NOT SHUT UP, but other than that, it was great. We stopped for lunch on Urupukapuka Island, which was absolutely stunning, and had this little holiday camp set up right on the beach. We also delivered some mail to a couple of residents who lived out on the islands, and I was literally agog at how amazing their houses were. Admittedly I didn't see inside or anything, they could have been an utter shambles design ...

... the days visits - Tane Mohuta (The Forest God), around 51m high, and 13.8m in circumference - he's big fella!! We've hit it at a time when there are a group of girls all wanting prime spot on a photo, if its not Japanese giving a 'V' sign, its Germans wanting a photo of themselves mid-jump in front of camera, its just bizaar!! Anyhow we were left alone for a few moment to take in this massive tree. Onwards we made for aseries of tramps through the bush to firstly 'The ...

The last leg of my route round New Zealand, the Bay of Islands. I caught the Kiwi bus up here to Paihia (a tiny town in the north where everyone goes out to the Bay of Islands from) a couple of days ago on the 11th. Here I have spent my last three real days in New Zealand. All I did on the first day was to shop about the sailing tours and booked myself in for one which I did yesterday. I spent the rest of the day wondering around town. It had been some ...

... it. Mind you when you got my weight going down a very steep sand dune I was able to get up a fair bit of speed. The walk to the top of the dunes was a killer though. It is bad enough walking in sand, let alone climbing a steep sandy "hill". Managed it twice though, and I dontt think anyone managed it more than 3 times in the half hour. The coach then drove onto 90 mile beach, this got its name hundreds of yeard ago when farmers would move livestock along it, and they ...