Emanuels Of Lake Karapiro Cambridge

Just visited Tiritiri Mantangi, One of the many predator free reserve islands of New Zealand. Over the past week we have been traveling the northland of the north island and visitiing a variety of forests, sailing in the bay of islands on a yahct and other stuff as well.

On our fist attempt to see Kiwi at Ahora Island, we only heard one shuffle off from under our feet, but saw nothing. Kiwi's are a flightless nocturnal bird that ...

... Valley which is a walk through wildlife park with the added attraction of lions (which were not walk through but in cages).

Headed back up to Auckland to hand the car back and had a ferry trip over to a suburb called Devonport. Really cute area with lots of lovely houses and a half decent pub. That was all we really had time for before we had to leave for Sydney early the next day.

... north of Auckland and I am going south today. I am off to an organic farm that is building a hut out of adobe and they asked if I could help. I told them I didn't have much experince in the area and they said they'd show me. It is something that I always wanted to learn so I am pretty excited. They also have organic food they will feed me which sweetens the deal a bit. On top of that, they make their own cheese! I am going to be in heaven.

... encountered is this whole southern hemisphere, other side of the International Date Line thing. The flight to New Zealand was 9 hours in length but it left Hawaii at 10pm on December 5th and arrived two days later in Auckland at 6am on December 7th. Weird, and try telling your kids that they don't get the December 6th chocolate from their Advent calendars because that day didn't exist in our world...it made our little Sarah Loo Hoo cry. (Thankfully ...

... are off to the Kelt this weekend ($2000000) race. Its the last race so after this we will be doing a lot of stuff. The kids are now on holiday for 2 weeks so we have been upto the Mount, its about 40mins drive from Matamata. We went across for the day, saw a movie called Beverly Hills Chihauhau (its brilliant go and see it if you can) and then we went to the hot pools which was great ...

... at us in despair when they found out we were going to Hamilton, as apparently it is regarded by the rest of the country to be a bit of a dump. If this is considered a dump here, I hate to think what they'd think if they all turned up in parts of the UK! The weather was glorious, and we were watching cricket by half twelve. I have to say at this point that I now realise why cricket fans get so drunk at matches. There isn't anything else to ...

... to meet. But someone was definatly looking over us, because we met Denise. We asked if we could use her phone to call a tow, she called it in for us. When he came he said that it would $80 for the tow, Denise put it on her AA card. When we got to the shop, Denise showed up with 2 sun flowers for both Larisa and I. So it ended being that before we bought the car new breaks were put on it, but the mechanic was lazy and didn't put on properly so it was banging ...

... the first time in five months, I can admit to myself that I miss America. Not just Colorado this time, either - I miss the United States of America. I can't say exactly what it is that I miss. It's not this freedom-of-speech business; they have that in a lot of countries. And with all the drama of elections coming up, it's not really Democracy either. We all know how well it's working in the US right now, at least. It's more a feeling than an idea; maybe a feeling I'll be able to pin down ...

... or Rotovegas as it's known, which is a eggy smelly town set up to take advantage of the hot springs and thermal pools. Moving straight through I was then on my way to Hamilton looking for somewhere to camp and, after I'd missed the place I'd planned on checking out, headed to a motor camp. I noticed a family had taken over the kitchen so I waited a while before eating but when I went back they were still in there ...

Straight from New Zealand's Art Deco capital (does it have any other Art Deco towns?) it's back to Cambridge and the start of our xmas 'vacation' at the Chetwynd household. Being English by birth, the Christmas plans here are very much the same as back home with all activities being arranged around well planned mince pie breaks. It's been a good year in the NZ mince pie harvest and we don't disappoint our guests by ...