Sea Spray Suites Paihia

... tourist you might want to take a second look. Mind you, rumour has it that they were sitting there in their flippers and handling their spare semtex. Pretty stupid really.



It was probably the biggest international incident to hit New Zealand since WWII. The frogmen got 10 years each but no-one high up in the French government was ever brought to justice. The worst part is that the French lobbied hard to let the two ...

... leg of the journey I'll be going back for more. Strayin' This morning aft** myst**iously discov**ing a bottle of extra virgin olive oil in the men's toilets at Base (the hostel - which is a dump), I checked out and was standing outside waiting to get picked up for the first leg of my Stray Bus tour. Stray Bus will take me ev**ywh**e in the country ov** the next 28 days. I can hop off and stay in places I like as I go - which will bring me up ...

Am Freitagmorgen gings dann los Richtung Paihia an der Ostkueste. Eine Bustour durch Neuseeland ist daher sehr interressant, weil man da jeden Tag neue leute kennen lernt und der busfahrer einem was ueber das Land und seine Geschichten etwas erzaehlt. Wie zum Beispiel folgende: Als wir durch einen kleinen Ort durchgefahren sind erzaehlte er uns, dass da die Polizei mit dem Hubschrauber und ...

... t?, Was he aware they would start working again?, Was this a persistent problem he knew about?) so we carried on up the road turned round to head back up the motorway. Unfortunately they only worked again for 2 minutes so we pulled in at the garage. The verdict was that it needed a new switch but couldn't get one until the following day. Not really wanting to stop in Orewa we decided to push on to the Bay of Islands, after all it was just one road straight up ...

... through the night and was still coming down this morning, but neither of us want to waste our time here so we headed out for the day. We spent most of the morning in town and then in the afternoon did a nice walk around the Whangarei Falls, which were much more spectacular than I expected them to be, even on a grey day like today. I can imagine this place being absolutely stunning in the sunshine. We also walked through a kauri park, and along the river ...

... and untrue. 90 mile beach is an actual state road at low tide. At high tide it is a vehicle trap for stupid tourists. I met an English guy on the trip that is working locally for a while and has made himself a name and good contacts with locals just as I did in the Mount. I guess some people just tend to "blend in". It's easy to do in New Zealand. I'm off for Russell for a night in a few days, then back to Auckland for the last time. I'm hoping to get some Kayaking in before I leave.

... bay, we did a walk the next day which said it was closed off as it was unsafe, we went in anyway and did a fantastic walk, it was called the Hukra falls, or something like that!!!!! but it was really good, climbing over fallen trees, taking shoes and socks off to cross streams, walking through mangrove, (a wooden platform had been built so you could cross it) we saw some awesome plants.

... Paihia is so peaceful, I really like it, especially after the hustle of Auckland, its a nice place to just sit back and relax. An early morning was needed on the 1st June... I actually cannot believe that it is already a new month and that I have been in New Zealand a week already. So the early morning was needed because Tara and I were going on a tour up to Cape Reinga the most northerly point you can drive to in New Zealand. So the trip started really early, and on the ...