Kingswood Motor Inn Whangarei

... of two old ladies who had good poke around our camper van but stopped short of trying the bed out!<br><br>We carried on driving up to Goat Island Marine Reserve. This is meant to be an amazing place to snorkel and Jon was desparate to go in but it was getting late and it was pretty freezing... so we settled for a walk across the rocks. The water was perfectly clear and we saw some really big fish swimming close to the rocks.<br><br>We ...

... I spent the next three hours driving up to Waipoura Kauri forest, with the aim of seeing New Zealand's largest tree. By the time I arrived, it was raining, so I waited in the car for a while. The rain didn't fully ease up, so I braved the rain for a few photos, then moved on to see another few smaller trees of the same variety. I went for a short walk to the Four Sisters, which were four kauri trees all close to each other. I drove from the west coast to ...

... We headed back into town and found a supermarket still open and headed for the alcohol lanes, picked wis up some beers. We approaced the check out with some suspicious looks from the checkout staff. They asked Jackie if she had any I.D. she willingly produced her Drivers licence which was met with confused looks. "Sorry we can't accept this, we need your passport" Me and Han happened to have wir passports on us so we showed them....."No sorry, we can ...

... a little perplexed. After a bit of scouting around we discover its possible to just about climb out of the cave, so we do. We circle back to the entrance to find the missing cavers who had been through without torches, helmets or shoes. Madness. In the afternoon I walk to a local waterfall. 23/01/2009 I have booked a tour called the Perfect Day run by a local(ish) operator. Im hoping one of the other guests might ...

* Hostel bed is very comfy * Got up anyway * Said bye to Israeli girl (not German!) who I'd shared a room with (no more than 3 to a room here), she is just starting her journey north but by car so she maybe a bit quicker. * Went into town, down hill is good but you just know it will hurt on the way back. * Went into a few shops, bought a second bike bottle for the bike, which the people in the shop put on for me - people are so nice here and as you may have ...

... to my shame i wasn't sure where it was, I have since looked it up, there are few things I'm still keen to learn). Any way they arrived and brought the grand total of guests up to 3 and diffused the situation a little. So about 9 in the morning I fled and was off again with my heavily laden bike with showers forecast, after about an hour it started showering and didn't stop for most of the ...

... of "admin" and stocking up on essential supplies, we once again hit Highway 1 north on an adventure we hadn't originally planned for. The rolling countryside and striking coastline provided yet another scenic drive as we eventually reached the town of Matakohe for night fall for the simple reason it had a campsite!

Then we drove to Leigh, via a scenic drive through Matapouri, Tutukara, Ngunguru and stopped for lunch at Whangarei before continuing on to Ruakaka, Waipu, Langs Beach, Mangawhai headsand to Pakiri. All right, I'll admit it; we got lost .... As the sun sank lower and lower we were still in search of a nice beach and a place to stay. Once in Leigh we wound up staying for free by the beach by ourselves in a beautiful little rest ...

... ootama. Tuli välja, et gruppide komplekteerimisel oldi kõvasti puusse pandud. Gruppi oli sattunud üks väga algaja (kõik olid paberi põhjal AOWD tasemega) ja tõenäoliselt oli ta omale AOWD ostnud J. See pilukas ei saanud end kuidagi vee alla ja ta praktiliselt veeti 6m peale. Aga komöödia alles algas. Ujuvusest ei olnud ta vist midagi kuulnud ja nii see vaene instruktor vedas teda ballooni ventiilist kinni hoides ringi. Vahepeal suisa oli tal ratsa seljas. Kahju, et ma ei taibanud pilti ...

... curtains all around that velcro together even on our star-gazing window above our heads so we don't get sun-blasted in the morning. We both slept like babies, we were warm and comfortable. We are looking forward to orbiting New Zealand in our spaceship. As soon as we had left the ****** city, there is a gorgeous view around every corner. We've already fallen in love with New Zealand and we have only been here two days. I know now that we are never going to want to come back down to Earth.