Grampian Villa Nelson

... set out for the airport for Miramar and the Weka cave which is home to a range of Peter Jackson stuff. It is very small but packs a lot into that small space. It was inspiring enough for me to book up for a full day of movie tourism seeing about 20 of the locations used in the LOTR films. Yes, yes I know &#8211; very sad &#8211; but since when did I care about what anyone else thinks?<br><br>I was convinced I was going to miss my ...

... evening looking for a &#8217;DOC&#8217; (cheap/sometimes free) campsite and getting incredibly hopelessly lost up a steep and winding gravel path - with the orange glow of the petrol light serving as a reminder that yes, we were also running out of petrol. We never did find that campsite, and ended up driving all the way back to Whangarei to stay at a campsite which we had to pay for&#8230;you&#8217;d think that was our lesson learned in searching for remote campsites for the ...

... bought her for her birthday. Went back to the hotel. Went for a meal with the group. Came back and chatted with the group.<br>10th July - Left Rotorua. Stopped off at Hobbiton! Stopped off to see a massive Kauri Tree! SOOOOOOOOO huge. Then we arrived in Paihi Bay of Islands, staying at Waitangi Hotel. Went to the supermarket and bought alcohol lol. Had tortillas and nachos. And apple pie for pudding. Then we all went to the town. Our guide Scott dressed up in a ...

... secluded River Valley Lodge we stopped to do a short hour+30 minute walk in Tongariro National Park... Kristen and I were about good with walking at that point, but it was still nice. We walked to a little waterfall and had lunch and had great views of Mount Doom. It made conquering that bad boy seem even better. On our way out of the park we stopped and looked at the Taranaki Falls, which were much closer to the road ...

... ants on the landscape. After many golden beaches, azure waters, beach breaks we all finally ended up at Back Bay where I pitched up in the camp site on the beach. Got a hot chocolate from the Kiwi boys Steve and Tim from the hike who were staying in the hut across the inlet sands. Treated to hot topic of the Wilson family (Abel Tasman locals) great grand-daughters inheritance amid headlamp light.

... problems getting back, he managed to return to battle. Making it short, IT WAS WORTH IT!!! Ask Matt, he keeps telling how great the idea was! The Sun still tried to hide behing a hill, but with a fast hopping we managed to get the first light of this last day. Fun to see three coloured pinguins looking to that rising fire ball, fun to see that the Sun was heading north as hoposed to South (as it happens in the North hemisphere). The ...

... some tinkering and removing part of the improvised shelving, that the rain was coming in from an old vent leftover from when the van had a shower which hadnt been sealed off. Another job for tomorrow. Tuesday 9th September Our plan had been to go kayaking along the Able coast, however none of the operators were hiring kayaks today due to strong winds. So instead we set off on foot, refusing ...

... of a large tray in seconds flat. By a very weird coincidence, I got chatting to an American chap called Ari who turned out to have worked with Lisa in WM. He had worked in the US office and they were aware of each other but had never met. Plus, he'd been shafted by the *******s in that company too (I can say it, I never signed the "don't slag us off" clause that Lisa had to when she got her redundancy) so we had plenty to ...