Best Western Amaroo Motel Tairua

Hey all,

We left for the road trip and found the roads incredibly easy to navigate:)

We left late as we had to stock up on supplies and also petrol.

We got to Tairua about 5-6pm, it was really grey and raining and the carpark was literally on a beach..... We checked that the signs didnt forbid parking (eg staying overnight), it had a public toilet (which actually ...

... car and had dinner at Alexas' aunt and uncles house, which was wicked. Hung out and played with Liam until he was tuckered out, drove downtown and checked into the X-base hostel, and went out for a few drinks with the girls. Alexa was nackered, so they only hung around for a couple jugs of Tui. After we said goodbye, Sean and I went to the Globe bar and then the rest gets kinda fuzzy. We caught the Oz bus this morning in Auckland, mildly hungover/still ...

... Zealand we returned to help on Jude's farm near Thames . We enjoyed a productive few days wiring fences, digging drainage and our parting gesture was to build a dry-stone walled garden and landscape it as a memorial to Jude's beloved Dalmatian, "Crystal", who's ashes were placed in the garden, I think the garden will remind Jude of her farm helpers too! We have had a brilliant time on the farm, we even got to have a go at milking the neighbours cows! However ...

coming soon.... Jaa, ich hab einen ;-D Mehr dazu, wenn ich Fotos habe So, darf ich vorstellen: Mein Schatzzzzzzzzzz Er ist ein ziemlich dicker Japaner, damit meine ich, dass er tatsaechlich aus Japan kommt und ueberall lustige Schriftzeichen hat :-) Fuer alle die es Interessiert, kurz die Daten: Toyota Estiam, Baujahr 1995, Automatik, Klima, 134000 km (was fuer hier richtig wenig ist) Servolenkung, 8! Sitze (falls ich Geld brauche, kann ich jetzt als Shuttelservice ...

Arrived in Tairua at around 3.30pm and we were planning on going to hot water baech then but the co-pilot was a bit under the weather so we camped up for the night in Tairua. Spent the following morning chilling and emailing waiting for low tide and then we headed to hot water beach. Hot water beach is aptly named as there are cracks in the bedrock under the sand and hot water fissures come to the surface so if you dig a pool in ...

Feeling very relieved to be away from the horrible hospital we headed for the beautiful Coramandal peninsular in beautiful sunshine! We made our way along the coast up to coramandal town where we enjoyed an icecream before heading over to the other side of the peninsular to Paihia where we checked into a hostel before heading to hot water beach. Sadly the tide was too high (at low tide) to be able to ...

... or the free option was to go on a tramp. I considered the kayaking option as I had never been kayaking before and the chance to see such wildlife seemed awesome. But, I then thought about it and decided because the weather didn't look 100% peaceful and neither did the ocean, that I would opt for the tramp. There were about 6 or 7 of us who set out, starting at the top of the cliff with some AMAZING views of the ocean and the many ...

... were harvesting at least 1 flax fan every 2/3 minutes...and thats freakin fast! When we had finally finished harvesting and loading the illegal trailer and the back of the van until there was hardly anywhere to sit, we headed off to Tairua for the second part of the day.... ... THE BEACH!!! We spent the afternoon at two different beaches, and the evening at a third. The first was nice, but the surf and riptide almost drown one of ...

Tuesday 4th December We left Taupo around 0930 hrs after calling into the saddlery (this was the 2nd shop we tried) in an attempt to get a 'numner' for Caroll but had no luck. the owner of the shop recommended that as we were heading north it would be worth going vie Matamata, which is the stud/equine area of NZ. It proved to be a lovely place with lots of stables,race ...

... where I passed the Katikati Kitty Cat Lodge - cute). I stopped off briefly at Waihi Beach, but it had decided to start raining by then so I didn't stay long. Some more shocking roads ensued through the forest before I finally found my destination of Tairua. A particularly narrow and very steep road led me to my lodge, almost at the top of a dormant volcano. Nice. I have wonderful views across the bay from my room, and yet ...