Delamore Lodge Waiheke Island

Left camp site around 10:45 heading for Cambridge; travelled through some lovely country roads to get to Cambridge; the weather has turned really bad by the time we arrived and it was absolutely tipping down when we got to Cambridge. Lovely town with some really nice houses; decided not to stay as it was so wet and headed off toward Hamilton; the rain stopped within 5 KM of leaving Cambridge and it was quite nice ...

I arrived into Auckland at about 4am and was met by my second cousin Linda who had got up at about 3am with her daughter to come and get me even though we had never met! Had a lovely 2 days with Linda and her family, went over on the ferry to the city centre, up the ...

... steep stuff on the other runs. The chair lift took around 15 mins to take us to the top, on the way up you cruise over the other riders who seem to be going at a snail's pace compared to the run I have just done. We get straight back on and onto the intermediate track and I'm tucked in close behind Kim, only hitting the brakes when I was blatantly going too fast for some of the tight bends. The bottom of the track splits and I go left whilst Kim goes right and I appear much sooner than ...

... lot of interesting things about the tortoises while we were given carrots to feed them and be real close to them. The carrots had to be quite long because the tortoises can actually take BIG bites and we wanted to keep all our fingers :D. Their beaks are like parrot beaks and can close with enough force to snap most things in half... EEK! We also got to pet them gently and had a little look inside the building where they often sleep. While petting the tortoises we noticed that ...

... Yvonne had checked with Air New Zealand who confirmed we were entitled to two pieces of luggage of 23kgs each and hand luggage so we were well within limits but there is no point carrying 12 loo rolls around America and back to England - so we settled for just two! (For emergencies of course!) We spent the day at a local butterfly farm which had a number of other attractions. We managed to eke that out for a couple ...

... leading onto balcony. We absolutely love it and have really just been busy buying loads of stuff to make it feel more like home. Starting school tomorrow. The assisyant head is giving me a lift - thank goodness as we still don't own a car! Very nervous and don't really know what to expect but kinda excited too. Sorry it's a bit boring this time! Look forward to hearing from you all. Love Lisa. xx

... dann ein Maedchen nach dem Weg gefragt und ich mutter kannte zum Glueck das Hostel und hat mich mitgenommen. Sehr gut, denn ic hwaere bestimmt 50 minuten gelaufen... Das Hostel liegt direkt im Busch/Urwald. War dann so kaputt, dass ich abends nichts mehr richtig machen konnte. Waren auch nur so Leute +40 da und ich habe mit den aelteren Frauen dann das Haus am see geguckt :) Am naechsten Morgen kamen dann anke und Susanne. Anke hat dann auch eine Nacht dort ...

... 8.500 Einwohner. Wir haben eine Explorertour gebucht und hatten dabei den geilsten Busfahrer aller Zeiten! Er hat uns die Highlights der Insel gezeigt. Das einzige Wort, das mir zu dieser Insel einfaellt, ist WOW! Aber schaut euch einfach die Bilder an!

... it like this instead!" Load of nonsense. A lot more rubbish ensued about the importance of all this deeply cultural stuff, and how her Celtic origins were an ideal counterpoint to his Maori ones, and more dance steps and chants and things were gifted to us, outside in the courtyard, with the mozzies. The constant biting was explained, with a completely straight face, as being part of the Maori twilight Haka ritual experience. The other one, if pulled, may have bells on. Everyone got ...

... goed, de manager kwam eraan en liet mij mijn plekje zien. Mijn huisje, hoewel wat claustrofobisch lijkend door het lage plafond, was wel vrij schoon. Ik heb een twee-persoons en een eenpersoonsbed (Jawel!) en een kastje, meer past er eigenlijk ook niet in (ik weet het, het lijkt heel wat op de foto :-D -die nog komt, de pc pakt het niet-). Het gebied is hier erg mooi, soms is er een wat harde wind, maar ik verbrande al bijna, dus maar snel in de weer gegaan met mijn factor 60. Het werkt wel ...