Sheltered Waters Backpackers Russell

... took our breath away and was a bit scary at first but once we caught up with the dolphins it was crazy. Dolphins were less than a metre away from us and Mark touched one of them. Took us an hour after getting back on the boat and a hot drink for us to properly get our breath and our chests not to hurt!!!! Worth it though!

Russell: 75%

Wanui Guesthouse: 78%

... Tokotoko, or walking sticks. The whaling boat was used as as school bus for a while to take kids from Russell to school across the bay. Then we went for a great hike up a steep hill to Tapeka Point. The view was amazing - we could see lots of islands and green, green hills and blue ocean. This afternoon we decided to take a jet boat ride to the Hole in the Rock past Cape Brett and the lighthouse. The ocean was really rough and had meters high ...

... with the docking of 'Earthrace' at the harbour. In 2008 this New Zealand built speed boat broke the world record for circumnavigating the globe. It did it in 60 days, 23 hours and 47 minutes - breaking the previous record by 2 weeks! Cool facts about this vessel are that it's carbon neutral - using 100% renewable biodesiel fuel, has a 5000 watt stereo, a top speed of 40 knots and it ...

... It was just beautiful.   We headed back down closer to Auckland because we booked a 2 hour horseback riding for the following morning along the beach in a small town about an hour outside of the city.  The ride was a LONG and tiring 3.5 hours and the roads are nuts so it took some serious talking and singing to keep awake.   We managed to get to Pakiri and found a parking spot near the beach and slept in the car that night.  

... OK, I'll concede this may not be news but it is important, it might be really hot and I may therefore be sweating ludicrous amounts particularly whilst cycling causing me to possibly smell, but I wouldn't want bad breath and tooth decay as well so - so it is important that I buy toothpaste! Note: Fingers crossed for photo upload soon - just need to find a suitable computer.

... for her postal address, if one of you could ask her to send it to me by e-mail that would be greatly appreciated. Anyway, then we decided to go try to hike up the trail to the falls. We did make it to the trail, we did complete the trail, but boy were we ever tired after. The trail is five kilometres one way so we travelled 10 in total on that hike. You must take into consideration also that we walked from Paihia to the trail and needed to walk back ...

... arrived around 1000 years ago. Maori used their timber for boat building, carving and housing and their gum for starting fires and chewing (after it had been soaked in water and mixed with the milk of the puha plant). The arrival of European settlers last century saw the decimation of these magnificent forests. Sailors quickly realised the trunks of young kauri were ideal for ships' masts and spars and settlers who followed discovered the mature ...

Lebo päev. Magasime kaua ja tegime reisikulude kokkuvõtteid. Väga hull olukord polnudki J Peale lõunat vaatasime linna, mis on väga ilus ja mõnus. Leidsime ühe teeäärse golfiväljaku ja katsusime selle "greenide" muru. Peab mainima, et see on kuidagi eriliselt pügatud. Väljakult avanes ilus vaade lahele ja linnale. Tegime pilti ja nautisime. Käisime ära ka Haruru kosel, mis oli senini nähtutest veerikkaim, kuigi mitte eriti kõrge. Gerli idee peale teha ise õhtusöök, suundusime poodi. Sealt sai ...

... br>
We were flying Pacific Blue, which is the Kiwi version of Virgin Blue (Ozzie low cost airline owned by Mr Moneybags Branson) and found that our check-in bags were underweight for once, so we had no problems sailing through to the airside area.

The plane was delayed but I managed to grab a paper so it wasn't too bad.

The flight itself was fine, it was a nice ...