Settlers Hotel Whangarei

On Wednesday mornining, after getting the flat tyre on the hire car changed for $25, we drove up to Auckland. On the way we stopped at the 'Herb Garden', a lovely B&amp;B that did a tea with scons and sadwiches and all manner of home made chutneys and pickles. A very worthwhile trip a few km of the highway just before Auckland. <br><br ...

... kangarooed my way down the street and onto the motorway. I returned an hour later when I found that my GPS didn't work.<br><br>Eventually, however, I drove for about 3 hrs North up Route 1 utnil I felt I'd got to where I was going. This turned out to be Whangarei.<br><br>The scenery is most impressive. It reminds me of Scotland except that the hills are more pointy. And greener. And everywhere is covered in strange ...

... lasted 5 hours in total and also involved abseiling into the cave, squeezing through minute gaps in the rocks, admiring the millions of glow worms and rock climbing back out again. It was so much fun. I was still buzzing when Dan picked me up and we set off up to Whangerei, so that Dan could meet his Canadian cousin, Jordan, for the first time. My god we had a great time with these guys. Within hours of arriving we were all wearing silly hats, doing Spangle shots ...

... um in das "Loch im Felsen" an der Bay of Islands zu fahren. Danach sahen wir so manche Delfine, die um unser Boot herum surften, war toll ihnen zuzusehen. Die ganze Tour endete um 11.45h und so gingen wir zurueck an den Strand von Russell und assen was kleines bevor wir dann zur Long Beach an der Oneroa Bucht zum schwimmen fuhren. Wir verliessen Russell noch den selben Tag so gegen 17.50h und fuhren nach Kawakawa um die Toiletten von Hundertwasser zu ...

... pretty and sparkly at night when it's lit up!); a parked car and a parked boat; the frontage; the dining area. So this tells you straight away what the priorities are, and it's not the actual accommodation. For anyone interested in the price, it's a mere $485,000 (£173,364) - I told you property was a snip here! Late this afternoon Moira took me to Whangarie Waterfalls, and pretty good they are too. You can do a ...

... away for the labor day weekend (which is a bank holiday in New Zealand to celebrate the 40hr working week which like the EU working time directive almost everyone exceeds). They were very relaxed though and seemed happy enough to have me along. We visited the Waipoura forest where i was suppose to be cycling to look at giant old Kauri tree's (growing for 2000yrs) which were cool (on a reminiscing note, i went to the kauri museum in Paparoa (there ...

Leaving Russell in the late afternoon we made the tortuously windy but beautiful drive back to State Highway 1 to make our way south towards Auckland. We made an overnight stop in Whangarei where we managed to use their Pak 'n' Save supermarket and get a free hardback copy of Alistair Campbell's The Blair Years in the campsite's book exchange! (Kim has been searching for ...

... hat es heute eine boese Ueberraschung gegeben: jetzt muss doch ein Traggelenk der Vorderachse repariert werden :(( Mit dem haben wir natuerlich nicht gerechnet... Jetzt muessen wir doch noch ein bisschen mehr ins Auto investieren. Hoffentlich verkaufen wir unser geliebtes Auto zu einem guten Preis. Naja, wir werden sehen.... Jedenfalls haben wir jetzt das verdammte WOF-Pickerl am Auto! Dannach haben wir Whangarei verlassen ...

... she was in for this either. We only had one head torch so with a little coaxing we started the rocky descend. With in a few meters it's pitch black and the going was slow as I would take a few steps and then light the way for Inge-Marie who would follow. We got deeper and deeper till we were getting quite wet and were getting close to crawling. I decided to go ahead and scout the terrain, to keep the woman out of danger of course. Halfway ...

... know that beaches tend to be a soggy affair back home, apart from when the sun comes out for 5 mins and then every man, woman and child, with dog, cat and pet stick insect in tow flock to the beach simultaneously. So we didn't get the whole big deal with beaches - and then we got to NZ. We fell in love with the empty golden stretches of sand, the pounding waves on the west coast (great for surfing and being knocked off your feet) and the gentle come ...