Colonial House Lodge Motel Kerikeri

... hochstapeln, Kiwi zielw**fen, den „Neuseeland sucht die v**gammeltste Kiwi“-Contest (welchen ein echt ekelhaft haariges schwarzgrün v**schimmeltes Exemplar gewonnen hat) od** Ti**e aus Kiwis basteln. Uns**e Sup**visor sind meistens auch nett und machen den Spaß mit. Also auch diese Arbeit kann Spaß machen. Ich weiß jetzt auch, dass Kiwis nur wachsen, wenn ein männlich** und ein weiblich** Baum zusammenstehen und dass sie sich einen Sonnenbrand holen können, dann w**den ...

... called "Gibby's Place", where we stayed the night. For dinner we walked to an italian restaurant we saw, when we drove past. We had a great night with lots of talking and good food and of course a glass of italian wine. Dieser Tag brachte uns fast Aerger aber nur fast, hatten doch Glueck, wie es eben zwei liebe Girls, wie wir es sind, verdienen ;-) Wir sind so gegen 8.30h aufgestanden und haben uns unser tolles Fruehstueck gegoennt. So gegen 10 ...

... consideration of swimming with the dolphins. For the next 30-45 minutes, we enjoyed the dolphin show. One minute they would be right near the boat, then the next minute they were in the distance, only to appear again a few minutes later. Sometimes there were two or three side by side and breaking the water in unison. The baby was flanked on each side by adults so it was always protected. We were joined by one of the overcrowded boats where ...

... as they are required to give (an unspecified) amount of money to the DOC, there was something mightily unsatisfying about paying $30 to watch dolphins swim away from you as you freeze your nuts off! So the cruise didn't turn out to be free afterall - still pretty cheap though and at least I can say I've swam with dolphins, even if I'd never do it again! I actually felt very refreshed from the swim and since my motto while travelling is 'no regrets' I was quite ...

I've decided, as a long term white person, (25 years), I'm now going to embrace my tan. Screw you whitey. Where's my grape drink? I want some fried chicken, and I want it Cheap. So solly cholly, no more WASP's here. I'm gonna open me a 7-Eleven and carry my whole extended family around in a dirty old Ford LTD then park it on the lawn. Now if your not too offended, read on. In my recent travels the only people that have screwed me over or made me want to punch kittens have ...

... all, so I rang Ian and he said that yes they were free at the weekend, brill! I booked my flight to Napier for tomorrow and reserved a car to pick up down there too. It all worked out nicely! It's funny how it worked out in the end, and the car was actually cheaper down there too - result! I had a nice relaxing bath and then settled down to a night of tv :) Desperate Housewives :) Sad I know, but nice to see something familiar. It had been a good day, I went to sleep happy :)

... and sunny and finding no trace of the railway, except an old road sign, we asked a resident about it. It seems the private railway did run from 'Kawakawa' to Opua but due to track costs had been forced to withdraw and now only ran in Kawakawa. Oh well. We drove down to nearby 'English Bay' and had a walk along the shore line in the warm sunshine, watching the boats in the bay and seabirds on the waterline. The tide was coming in and slowly covering the ...

Our final full day in Northland was spent around the Kerikeri area. Kerikeri is a town not far from the Bay of Islands, and is the province of artists and artisans of all varieties. I find it reminiscent of West Sonoma County, around Sebastopol. The town has a small centre with a number of boutique shops and cafés. We lunched at a vegetarian place called Zest Cafe, where we had a vegetarian burger (with a falafel patty—tasty) and the 'Zest ...

After leaving Auckland we headed for the Bay of Islands. The only stop we made was to a place called Goat Island Marine Reserve where you can see loads of fish and sea life in the water from the rocks. We saw loads of fish, although it hasn't really turned out that well in the photos. We didn't quite reach Paihia in one day so we made a stop over in Whagerai for one night and ...

... Organics were already taken by Carola and Farina, two young German travellers who'd arrived a little earlier, so we could have The Caravan. We'd been given an inkling of what to expect from the caravan when Marty, our WWOOF host, promised he'd be down later to 'sort out the rats' adding with a twinkle, "You don't wanna be roughing it too much". I expect in her day, the little pale blue caravan had, with her curvaceous silhouette, set ...