Breakfast on the Beach Lodge Waiheke Island

... s doing well. She's driven back down past Auckland and tomorrow will be heading up to Coromandel. The camp sites have lacked privacy so far so she's hoping to find quiet one in the middle of nowhere so she can get the peace that she wanted.<br> Not much to report as I haven't been able to speak to her, I'll do better tomorrow!<br> <br> Love and/or jaffa cakes<br> Dave<br>

... and spend longer in the places we liked so much and to go that bit further to places we just couldn't fit in. I'd definitely recommend NZ though, it has everything you could want from a destination and even in Autumn it was so much more milder than we expected. It's so diversified and compact that you can see so much in such a short space of time. We'll be back again and next time we'll be driving around!

... for the final leg of our adventure. Finishing up we get to the car and then chill be the riverside in the park for a while before getting on our way up to Auckland. We figure it's going to be better to be near the city for the morning rush to get the Van back to wicked. We find an inner city campsite run by a couple of really odd people and book in for the night. As we drive in there are four Irish people drinking and having a mini party on the campsite. We pull in at a site next to them ...

... ship dry of certain lines, two of which are my favourite tipples, so I'm hoping they'll restock before we sail tomorrow! Wednesday 11/03/09 Auckland - New Zealand (Still) Temps Air 25°C Decided to take up the offer of the free excursion which took us over the Auckland Harbour Bridge to the small township of Orewa, there's a very pleasant beach but little else, and after a short stay we left to visit Lake Pupuke, a deep fresh water lake which is actually ...

... the exhibits of Dinosaurs, Birds, Ocean Life, and Volcanoes. After lunch we went to an exhibit called "Scars on the Heart." We did a little section, one of New Zealand's War Memorial Exhibits. It talked about the things that New Zealand went through during the 1st and 2nd WW's. Then Devon, Mom and I went to look at the Dinosaur, and the Volcano exhibits. Merina went to finish "Scars on the Heart." In Volcanos exhibit we went into an eruption simulator. In the ...

... as Ledbury, surrounded by beaches - and only 1 hour ferry ride from bustling Auckland. The main town, Oneroa, has two main beaches - big O and little O. The four of us stayed for four nights in our own house (wow) in the jungle next to little O. We had two days to chill out, explore and socialise with Spuds friends and family before the big day. The wedding itself was on big O on a ...

... in useless trivia, is the size of Singapore) was that we were told it had pumice rock floating in it. No sooner had I muttered, "I don't see no stinkin' pumice" when Tracy pointed out a floating rock...very neat (yet again), and we now have several choice pieces in our trunk. I'm already wondering what we're doing dragging rocks along with us on this trip (even if they are light). Somewhere along the way I'll have to teach Tracy the ...

... we got to sample. Our third winery, Cable Bay, had a beautiful, contemporary building set on the mountains and we got gorgeous views of the ocean once again. By the time we left, Jeremy and I had a delicious bottle of white wine, red wine, and avacado oil in our hands. Shannon was determined to pack in the full amount allotted by customs and left with almost a dozen bottles of wine and several more bottles of avacado oil ...

... A large (probably staggeringly expensive) dish on a (probably staggeringly expensive) stand by the French windows was used for people to pay $10 a head for their attendance, with nobody really paying attention to who had and hadn't paid. Our somewhat sceptical attitude led us to hold fire, figuring we'd maybe chip in later if it seemed to be worth paying for. Mike had left us all to go and collect a fourth Couch Surfer, a Czech girl by the name of Gabriela, from the ferry terminal ...

... The Best Chips Shop and ordered some fish n' chips. Two huge pieces of local fish and heaps (lots) of salty fries came wrapped in butcher paper. Delicious! We then tried to drop some of the calories by biking to some of the beaches on the island. We made our way along the narrow roads of traffic and ended up at a Waiheke vineyard called Wild on Waiheke. A tour bus was about 10 minutes from leaving, so we ...