Okiato Lodge Russell

... town. On a gravel road shortcut to Whitianga I stopped by at Waiau Falls, which were far from high ones. Next stop was interesting Cathedral Cove with its natural limestone arch and subsequently the peninsula's highlight, Hot Water Beach. There are two hot water resources underneath, heating up a spot on the beach. It can be accessed around low tide. I missed the afternoon on thus had to wait till the night.

... swim. On the way out it wasnt windy enough but on the way back it picked up to a force 5 with the boat leaning at 45 degrees and I got to stear for a while. By the time we got back to Russell it started to rain big time, we didnt care as we had had a top day and they need the rain. It was valantines day and Bri went all out to treat me like a princess, I got to do the laundry and he paid for dinner.....take away fish and chips never tasted so good ...

... eine Marihuanaplantage gefunden hat, diese Pflanzen ausgerissen, gebuendelt und weggeflogen hat zum verbrennen. Dummerweise waren die Pflanzen in der Bluete und somit verloren sie ueber dem Dorf ihre Samen und es begannen ueberall Marihuanapflanzen zu wachsen..... In Paihia sind wir dann um ca 14 Uhr angekommen, haben in das Hostel eingecheckt und uns fuer eine Kanutour auf der Bay ...

... it. Hundertwasser, as I'm sure you all know, was born in Austria in 1928, and is an internationally recognised architect and ecologist. In 2000, Creative New Zealand awarded this Hundertwasser building, the Premier Award in urban and Landscape Design. After a quick coffee combined with a lengthy retail therapy experience, we headed to Kerkikeri where we visited the Stone Store and the Mission House. The Stone ...

... around by a speed boat - arm straining fun! * Sailed back, sun came out. * Went for fish & chips with guys (I know I'm getting fat) and then after a short break went to pub quiz. * We didn't win * Went home early, good day, just felt a bit rough. Why we didn't win pub quiz: Reason A: We didn't know all the answers. Reason B: They had these bonus round that involved doing stupid things for points. One was to swap your clothes with a member ...

... de lo mas impersonal (donde quedaron esos guias que intentaban siempre ligar contigo?). Paihia es un pueblecito de costa de lo mas tranquilo. Seguramente la cosa cambia en verano, pero en nuestra estancia nos parecio incluso inquietante (tipo pueblecito David Lynch). Paseamos y disfrutamos de un estupendo albergue que parecia la casa del capitan pescanova y que tenia una chimenea fantastica. Y la excursion al punto mas al norte (que en realidad no lo es ...

... The skipper put my bags away and gave me a waterproof then off we went. It was really fun when he went fast :) We bounced across the waves and the spray was flying past us. It was really exhilerating! The scenery was spectacular as we sped past lots of islands of all shapes and sizes. Some of them had just one house on it. Can you imagine the cost of that! With its own private jetty too! We got to a cave and he drove in. The colours of the rocks were beautiful ...

... cooked breakie and lots of cups of tea to top it off. Malcom then offered to take us for a walk around some of the hotel grounds which are geothermal and proved to be very interesting indeed. The walk was about an hour and with the dogs in tow we made our way deep into the grounds where we came across blow holes, bubbling mud (from cold to very hot), a huge slag heap where ore (cinebar) used to be extracted and some more hot pools (these dating back to the Victorian times). After ...

Good morning from the near northern tip of NZ! It's beautiful up here in the Bay of Islands - Paihia, specifically. Nice to be in a place with a slower pace and that I can get around pretty easy on crutches. The ankle looks much worse than it feels! It's fairly swollen and I have bruising along the bottom of the sides of my foot and near my toes on top. I walked a bit on it today to test it out ...

... really wanting to be one of them, I (chivalrously/stupidly?!) let a young Canadian girl take the second kayak. <br><br>When the full group was on the beach, we were lead up to a view point, which gave us a fantastic panorama of the Bay of Islands around us, it was quite something. <br><br>This was the view back down ...