Sea Dream Waiheke Island

... working when I wanted to leave in a month anyway, and so I went down to the travel agents to book my onward tickets. And so I decided to head down to Christchurch whilst waiting for my visa applications to come through. But I just had time for a Christmas dinner at Easter. Apparently its a traditional ex-pat thing to have a Christmas dinner in the Southern Hemisphere's Winter when its colder, as Xmas in the Summer just isn't the same. I certainly wasn ...

... keeping contact. Amazing how modern technology works today. We are somewhat baffled that we are here. The flight was only 3 hours and the time difference is 3 hours, so we were a little all over that place when we arrived. It is so far, yet so close to where we came from, ie. Australia, and we are still to find out where NZ really differs. We still pay with dollars, the climate is a little cooler but still lovely and sunny and the people still talk ...

... Zealand. We went on a ride in a boat called the "Puke" (Poo-Kay). It is a 130 year old steamboat that was used to gather logs. Then we looked around the Museum a little bit. Then we went for a ride on the "Ted Ashby", an old scow (flat bottom boat),that was used to deliver goods along New Zealand's coastline. Then we finished up the museum.  I really enjoyed Auckland. It is so nice to be able to speak the language. It is about +25 degrees here during the day. - Rigel 

... visiting beaches, winerys and WW2 defence posts and tunnels. We said our goodbye to Spud and Kim over a gobsmackingly delicious tapas after having had a great time catching up, and headed back to Auckland on the ferry. Here sadly we had to say good bye to Olly and Jenny too but so that they didn't miss us too much we gave them lots of our heavy stuff to take home to remind them of us!

... attractions were clearly a significant contributor to our enjoyment here; but we have also kept a "Things We Like About New Zealand That Aren't Scenery Related" list. It includes the following: · A sticker on the dash of the car to "Keep Left" and directional arrows painted on the road as you leave tourist sites. A little positive reinforcement that I really should be on the left hand side of the road is always nice. Perhaps the Kiwis should take ...

... travelled as far as Kamo Springs, but we had a little drama en route. Whilst driving in New Zealand, you quickly realise that there are far more bugs flying around the countryside than in England. These generally just cause the windscreen to need cleaning more often, but sometimes the bugs manage to get sucked in through the open windows. This had happened to Chris and I twice before and both times had been bees. Thankfully they tended to hit something on their ...

... connoisseurs out there, New Zealand is a great place to try wine. Wineries can be found throughout the country. We decided to check out the vineyards located on Waiheke Island, which is a small island off of the coast of Auckland. Unfortunately, we waited to Saturday morning to book the wine tour, and it turned out to be booked. Luckily, we managed to track down another one at the last minute. It all worked out well, because we ...

... through his nose. In any other situation, you'd have offered him a glass of water and called an ambulance, or maybe established whether or not he had Tourette's Syndrome. Apparently, he explained later, this is because Maoris are very linked with the Sun, and are so susceptible to it that they accumulate a lot of wonderful light energy, sometimes so much so that they shake uncontrollably - not to worry though, it's just that they are full of light. Maori bloke stood up, launching ...

... We rode to Onetenagi beach where we decided to relax for a while. The water was crystal-clear and surprisingly warm. It was refreshing to take a dip in the ocean after biking. It was low tide and some fellas were playing cricket down the beach. After soaking up the sun for an hour, we fueled up for the ride back by getting some ice-cream. I did the hokey-pokey (NZ's famous ice-cream which consists of ...

... matras kleven en die afkomen op lichaams warmte. Ze laten bultjes achter die te vergelijken zijn met brandnetel-bultjes, alleen jeuken deze veel langer en zien ze er ook ranziger uit, omdat ze echt een soort pad over je lichaam vormen. Jak jak jak!<br>Slaapzakken moesten gewassen en verder alles nagekeken worden. Dat heeft me een mooie ochtend gekost.<br><br>Verder ben ik de eerste avond nog wel even bij Willem, Liz en "Baby" (ze heeft ...