Hikers Haven Wairarapa

... kind of tie in and the Thistle Inn was nearer the shoreline than it is now (before the earthquake shifted the land a bit) I can't imagine he had any trouble getting served and probably didn't ever pay once for a dash of lime in his lager. Back to our visit; there are two routes to the top of Kapiti, steep and very steep. The kids did fantastically well, Millie practically running up (I crawled the final quater with Dylan ...

... wässern und Marc und ich schon gefällte Bäume entaschten und zu Brennholz verarbeiten. Alle Tätigkeiten wurden sogar angezogen tolariert ;-)! Und oh Wunder...ich bekam sogar eine Schnittschutzhose zum Motorsägen.....dafür gabs aber keine Handschuhe. Denn laut Gerry "braucht n richtiger Kiwi (Neuseeländer) keine Handschuhe!"...die Aussage von mir "dass ich aber n richtiger Deutscher bin, konnte ihn da auch nicht umstimmen!" Zum Lunch gab´s dann lecker Gegrilltes ...

... so we didn't mind having it again. Before leaving Plimmerton, we scrambled along a particularly rocky portion of the attractive shoreline, seeing what wildlife we could disturb. New Zealand beaches typically house a profusion of life, with some sort of mollusk or crustacean on almost every surface; it's hard to take a step without endangering some creature's life. This beach in Plimmerton took that to a whole new level, with something--typically ...

... I had no food for it (not my fault; talk to the goats!). A minor attraction of the park was a large pen full of guinea pigs and rabbits. While that's neat enough on its own, this pen was even better: you're allowed to climb in it to commune with the animals. Since I've never gotten over my childhood fondness for guinea pigs, this was great fun for me. Talking to an employee later on, we learned that they breed the guinea pigs (well, I ...

Heaving ourselves up form a giant plate of pancakes, we left Carterton with a View to visiting Greymouth and Masterton. As it turned out we drove straight through both, thinking they looked nice but not so inviting to stop again. Instead we headed for Lake Ferry on Lake Onoke. On a sunny day like it was, the place looked amazing. The kids had a wonderful time collecting driftwood and shells. A great way to spend a sunday

... like it was sloping down towards us. The following night we go the chance to sleep in a Mongolian Yurt that was set up in the grounds of their house. This was one swanky tent with a kingsize sleigh bed and ethnic wall hangings in relly bright colours and dark wooden furniture. There was no electricity so they supplied candles and a lantern. It something special!

... was uneventful and not as rough as the journey over to the south island. We sat inside for most of the time, enjoying the warmth, only going outside as we entered the North Island. Off the ferry and the plan was to head out and spend the night with cousin ted - Kev's cousin Kenneth, who had moved out to NZ a couple of years ago. He lived in featherstone on the east side of wellington and we thought that it would take about an hour to get there from the ferry port. We were ...

... manoevers we were told. We managed to catch some sleep on the bus and then it was time for our stop in Paraparaumu. We got dropped off and 30 minutes later Ron picked us up and took us to their beach house in Rumauti. It is a beautiful house right on the beach. When we got in we took a long walk on the beach with their dogs. It was just beautiful. We could see Kapati Island across the way and actually see the South ...

... heading to Wellington for new year we visited a few of the local attractions in the area, including a little farm which had some ostriches which were rather over friendly. We were trying to feed a deer and they kept charging at this poor deer and making a grab for the feed. It then followed us all around the farm, until at last we foiled it by creating a decoy (Mike) and Bennie the deer was eventually fed. We also went up in to the mountains behind Carterton to a gorge ...

Howdy all! Well, this weekend was probably the best weekend I've had here so far! We went to glow worms caves in Featherston, ATVing, to the Cape Pallister light house and seal colony and to a winery! Loads of fun! First, we drove out to this rural farm out in the middle of no where, we then hiked down across a creek and into this cave which was pitch black. The creek ran through it which was up to your knees, so we ...