Kourawhero Country Lodge Warkworth

... only one toilet's in operation because the trolley thats been blocking the isle for the last 45 mins is now blocking one of the ******* doors. Fack they're useless. I'm pretty thirsty by now and my **** has just made room for more water so I cleverly decide to combine the **** trip with a water request. The dude looks flustered and say's "We're just setting the trolley up now for drinks so will be up there soon". Facking liar, another half hour passes and for the first time i ...

Tues 3rd March - Ron's Birthday Ron had planned to go fishing for his birthday - unfortunately things don't always go to plan and he ran into a stake herding up some sheep. After rushing to the doctors and getting a check up, scans etc. a tear to a muscle meant alot of limping but fortunately nothing more serious than that. In the evening. Ester, Andy, Jenny and I all went down to see Jenny E perform some of her own material with a guitar songwriter friend at the ...

... X-rayed - no need to strip this time around! Finally I got through but it was still only about 6 - 6.30 in the morning so I was pleasantly surprised to see a welcoming committee had come to meet me including the birthday duo Esther and Luba, only the red carpet was amiss! Maybe it was the sheer relief of getting through customs but on stepping out of that airport the fresh air felt ...

... the top seal of the roads so you have to drive over gravel and, if you're really unlucky, big sharp rocks. And this doesn't happen for a few hundred metres, this can happen for 1 - 2 kilometres in some places! Poor ZiZi stuggled over some of the jaggier stones but we made it..... We decided that by the time we got down here we would just head straight into Auckland to go to the museum rather than go to the camp site first then mess about with ...

... out to sea. The car parking situation at the cabin was a source of great amusement for me as it was a thin strip of grass and then a four foot drop onto the tents below - not a bother for me - but the old guy in the cabin next to us was struggling so much I had to move our car to let him in, which he still struggled with, and then reverse park our car back into the spot it had been in 20mins before. Then the ...

... was no shade. We were joined for lunch by a flock of sea gulls and it was fun to watch the hierarchy at work. We nicknamed three of the birds ("leader ", "second in command" and "bad beak"). The beach was of white sand and we both went swimming in the sea which had huge waves. While body boarding on one wave, Steve was flipped right over in a forward roll and had his head slammed against the floor. A final stop was at the Whangerai Falls, which would have ...

Finally I was able to fligh to New Zealand! As I got sick in Sydney I had to cancel my first flight on the 29th of december, so sad. But I'm feeling much better and ready to travel. My flight was at 4.30pm arriving in Auckland at 9.30pm. There is another time difference of 2 hours from Sydney to Auckland, that means now 12 hours to Europe. Carmen, my father's cousin and ...

Whew, finally a second to breathe..the last few weeks in New Zealand have been a total blur. After an unsuccessful attempt to climb the glacier due to rain, we finally made it back to Christchurch and the rain welcomed us there as well. After an interesting and at times awkward experience staying at an all female hostel, we were back to the North Island. (note to self:avoid female hostels, you WILL be ...

... and a deer. Weirdly enough, there is a deer farm close to my house. Apparently, deer horn velvet is a large export to Japan. Also, we went to Brick Bay Sculpture Trail which is an hour long trail with modern art sculptures throughout. This was really awesome, and had I been by myself I would have probably would have spent a lot more time there. Adam (Pam and Tom's son) took us to a party on Friday night. What an experience. The legal drinking age is eighteen here and so that ...

The work Jo got us to do the day after was good fun - weeding, planting, chopping logs, cutting up fallen pear tree branches, digging out thistles in the paddocks and clearing an area used to grow HUGE pumpkins! We were bloody knackered by the end of the day!! Of course, my day wouldn't be complete without some cock up occuring, and this one was of my own devising. I thought it ...