Gulf Haven Waiheke Island

Not long after arriving in Nz we boated to Waiheke Island, the 2nd largest of the Hauraki Gulf islands. Spotting a last minute deal with our French flatmates we took Betsy for a look-see. It was known as a hippy location decades back to escape the rat race of Auckland. Nowadays it is reputed for its vineyards, olive gardens, nature walks, superb views &amp; extreme wealth. <br><br>After our 40 min ...

... probably going to be a fun but uneventful night inWellington turned out to be a great laugh, especially as one of the guys was celebrating his birthday! Many Jagerbombs all round...! From Wellington it is an express route back to Auckland with just one overnight stop in Taupo. As it is the same route as the way down there is not much to tell....apart from the bubbling mud pools as you can see in the pics. Taupo was really just an ...

... three t-shirts and my fleece. Finally getting a cup of tea together on the stove we make our way into the village to get the information we need for the crossing. Getting to the car park we chat to an Aussie couple who are set to do the crossing that day too. The visitors centre informs us that we will need to get a shuttle to the start which will then bring us back at the end of the day, making it into a one way walk of aroun19km, which is much better than going up and coming down the same ...

... tune plays does have its appeal :P Whenever the Jaws tune played Trude would just HAVE to look behind her JUST IN CASE!!! The full name of the place is Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter &amp; Underwater World and that was made real by us going on a little automated tour in a modified Snowcat (a vehicle designed to traverse open icey plains) past groups of King Penguins. It started off rather cheesy though with going ...

... folks we haven't seen for ages and some we only met for the first time. Funniest moment of the weekend though was the bar we were at the night before the wedding. It was a small place with the 20/20 on but muted as there was a chick setting up the karaoke. Let's just say the scene was looking pretty old school and small townish. Anyway, who should walk in but Tuffsy and the first ...

... and out night flight, so we had a meal and the lights were dimmed and Steven slept solidly through, not even waking when the lights went up and announcements were being made about breakfast. He did eventually wake but refused breakfast in favour of the Disney Playhouse channel again. This boy has become so blasé about travelling! This came as a great relief to his parents as we were not looking forward to this flight.

... spot nearly at the north tip of the North Island, known for... um... its bay, and... uh, its islands. Having not had our fill of sailing, we decided to get on yet another boat to check out the waters surrounding the towns of Paihia and Russell. After a relaxing couple of days we returned to Auckland for one more night before leaving New Zealand and our burgeoning rock careers behind.

... so someone can eat Indian, someone else Chinese etc.. Anyway I went for some "fush and chups", as they pronounce them here. I had never heard of any of the fish before so as is my want I was asking the guy behind the counter lots of annoying questions about what was what etc. Now in most places I could usually expect grunts and groans and the usual "wat er ya bleedin after ...

... you effectively cooked yourself - so I had a surf &amp; turf and Ivan had mixed grill. Really enjoyable if a little hot (those hot stones keep pumping out heat for ages after! Even when they took them away the table was still hot for ages!) Against our better judgement we had dessert - and here's where the menu was incredibly deceiving. Ivan ordered ice cream (expecting one or two scoops) and got a huge sundae in a knickerbocker glory type glass. I ordered ...

... so as we eventually set off up the most likely of all the unlikely streets, our continued delay had prompted him to come looking for us, and he emerged round the corner to walk us up to his place. His lovely, big, surrounded-by-jungle place. Saskia, another Couch Surfing guest was working in his Tarzan-themed garden, and after a brief greeting, we went in, dumped our bags, and were told a few brief bits and pieces about what there was to do on the island, followed by an ...