On the Beach Backpackers Lodge North Island

After being picked up in Auckland by my Stray bus driver, Princess, we were off to make a few more pick-ups and then we headed toward this huge hill for one last view of the city. From there we could see all of Auckland, the highlight being the tower... sticking straight up in the middle of it all! We took a few photos and then headed back onto the bus again. We drove through a few small towns along the way, stopping for "toilet" breaks (that's what they call it here... not "using the restroo...

After being stuck in 3 days of torrential rain, hanging out with cool folks at the On the Beach Hostel in Whitianga (pronounced Fitianga) meeting a guy from Maine, and getting my hair cut, I hit the road once again, this time heading south to Rotorua and Taupo. Rotorua is famous for volcanic hot springs and bubbling sulfur mud pools, and Taupo is famous for its incredible lake of the same name, which is bigger than the city country of Singapore. The funny thing about traveling the world is th...

Drove 3.5 hours north to the Whitianga a town in the Coromandel Peninsula (north of north island). Stayed at the fantastic beach lodge backpackers, when we got there and found that we had our own fully self contained apartment, overlooking a lovely stretch of beach, it wasnt a ************* to make this our base for the remainder of the NZ trip. We spent the next 4-5 days exploring the area, beach combing, playing board games, arguing over cheating in said board games, sampling the local nigh...

Greetings, friends, family, and fellow travellers!! First, my apologies for not updating this travel log since my last entry-its been far too long & I've done so much so let me warn you now that this is a long one. You may either want to break it up or wait until I post the pictures that correspond-should be this weekend (I hope), but anyway, here we go: Let me first back up for starters... I stayed in Taupo with my strepth throat for a total of three days. I started to feel better and wa...

Mary Ann and I left the first beach and drove up a few hours to Whitianga just in time for some evening kayaking in Mercury Bay. Whitianga is a little town that is located very close to several amazing beaches. My personal favorite part about this town is that in Maori WH is pronounced with a "f" sound....so this town is named fitianga.....strange. This pronunciation becomes a lot of fun for other NZ cities (such as Whakapapa--sound it out if you'd like!) Since this was Mary Ann's grad finale...

Vrijdag 4 Juli Vandaag sta ik heel vroeg op! Ik informeer of er vandaag tours vertrekken naar White Island maar ook vandaag varen ze niet. Ik besluit Whakatane te laten voor wat het is en wil een lokale bus pakken naar XXXXXXXXX. Als ik met de grotere bus maatschappijen reis brengen ze mij eerst terug naar Rotorua en gaan dan weer omhoog via een andere weg. Ik heb geen zin om helemaal om te rijden, ook omdat dit veel tijd kost. De 'bay hopper' rijdt twee keer per dag naar XXXXXXXXX en daarvan...

WHITIANGA, COROMANDEL PENINSULA, Dec. 11 and 12 -- On Monday I left Thames and went to the other side of the Coromandel Peninsula, to a larger small town called Whitianga. In Maori, it is pronounced Fvitianga. The Wh is a soft, gutteral F. Which makes for fun pronunciation of a town called Whakepapa.... The almost three-hour bus ride went up the eastern side of the peninsula before cutting across to Whitianga. The thing about traveling here in New Zealand is that there's usually only one way ...

Frequently as we travel through New Zealand we come across places or road names which are either similar to those in the UK or give a clear indication of the British roots of some of the early European settlers. On this occasion we entered the Coromandel Peninsula via the small town of Thames. From Thames the road snaked north, with high cliffs to our right and the waters of the Firth of Thames extremely close on our left! Very picturesque but, on occasions, a little nerve-wracking. After som...

SB: With just under 4 weeks to do both islands in NZ, we didn't hang around long in Auckland and hired a car to get us on our way (pay peanuts you get a complete monkey of a car!). First stop was to head east to the Coromandel Peninsula. Beautiful place, and in fact driving up the west coast of it the road rivalled, if not bettered, many parts of the Great Ocean Road. The target was the Hot Water Beach, a beach with a thermal reservoir beneath it in one part, the thermal waters rising up and ...

Matt picked me up in Thames and drove me ove to Whitiangia - my home for the next week or so. Alas there were no beds or even camp sites at his hostel, so I ended up camping at On The Beach Backpackers - which is a really good hostel. With no tent, I spent the night in my Bivvy Bag!