Settlers Hotel Whangarei

... to grab my coat and a sick bag but managed to punch a lady in the face by accident as the boat rolled about violently! After this I decided it was best to stay sitting down. The journey took an hour and half and the conditions didn't improve. The only highlight was seeing a group of dolphins, but it was so rough it was hard to appreciate.

When we finally arrived at Poor Knights Islands we weren't really feeling like swimming, but we ...

... diving suit was a lot thicker than where I learnt to dive in Thailand. The suit was 7mm thick and a full body suit with socks, as opposed to a 3mm suit to the knees in Thailand, with the reason being the temperature. There were many interesting fish and fauna at the site, with five foot long eels and Scorpion Fish that looked like rocks. During the lunch break between the dives, the boat went into a cave which produced a lot of echoes, and boasted ...

... apprehensive at first because of the name and all but they assured me that by replacing the "C' with the "K", they had actually completely altered the definition... (apparently kannibal means a party or group who feeds off of human kindness)...that's a good enough explanation for me. I hope you picked up on the joke because it was a pretty bad one. No, I am somewhat lost in Whangarei but the people here have been nothing but helpful so far, so ...

... bus pickup point back to the hostel, pretty hard going as the backpack I have is quite heavy and its boiling hot. End the day playing 5-a-side football with Jon the hostel owner in some little local friendly league, then head into town for a curry. Heading north tomorrow. I hope all the places I visit arent as great as this because if I end up not wanting to leave everywhere I go its going to be bloody murder.

... bag fish feeling - but that is all raincoats. * I cycled some of the way, some flat, some inconsiderately large hills, anyway after about 20km, I saw a sign not from god but put up by some responsible government body (I'm assuming I didn't see them do it so it could have been god), anyway it said 'Pataua 9km', 'Taiharuru 15km', 'Whagarei heads 15km' in different directions. I looked at the map. If I went to Pataua and the footbridge which wasn't on my map but ...

... was ace. It was a shop full of puzzles we had a go at a few and I engaged in geeky puzzle chat with the owner from my time working in a toy shop (it not often you can do that) and he told me all about puzzle conferences, which are apparently held all over the world and are tax deductible! The actual labyrinth wasn't finished so went for a walk (it stop raining/galing at this stage) to a surprisingly pretty waterfall, not that waterfalls aren't ...

... in. It was quite windy so the ocean was rough. I love the sea when it's like this. There were some men out on a rock fishing with the waves crashing either side of them. We headed back and Zoe and I ran down the sand dunes. I got caked in sand but it was so much fun :) I gave them piggy backs along the beach and we made our way back home. Back at the house I found some French books and Muriel had been teaching Zoe since she was really ...

yes folks we are officially underway - we have booked the flights - Carmel leaves on June 30th and will visit her sister in Chicargo. I leave on July 6, and we meet up for ten days in Vancouver before heading to the UK. I want to come to grips with this blogging thing before we head off, so I'll keep you posted.

... Uus-Meremaal. Meie apartmenti omanik on näiteks Lõuna-Aafrika päritolu keemik, kes pidi oma korteris käima ca 3 korda aastas. Ülejäänud aja on korter välja renditud suvitajatele nagu meiegi ning rentimist korraldab see sama kohalik vanake. Et see ei ole päris tavaline hotell, kus pidevalt keegi retseptsioonis istub, siis ootas vanake meid juba kannatlikult 3 tundi. Siiski oli tal olemas meie telefoninumber ja oleks ju võinud ...

We drove 2.5 hours north of Auckland to spend a couple of Days in Whangarei. This was all about rediscovering all the things Colm remembered from his childhood - School, houses, just exploring the town really. We were lucky to actually get into both ...