The Waterfront Hotel New Plymouth

... night we spent camped out in our van at the DOC office parking lot and were woken up around 3:00am by the next storm. So once again we made rainy plans and are now off to the Waitomo Caves area. Within the caves are glowworms. I'll stop here for now and load up some photos while I've still got some remaining internet time. Hopefully on the next post I'll have a good story about what we find underground.<br><br>Eat chocolate and take good care! <br>Bobby and Alasia <br>

... gut 2500 m hoch. Das erinnert mich an die Unterhaltung mit meinem Vater am Telefon vor einigen Wochen, als ich im versichert habe, dass es hier ein paar 6000er gibt. An Papa: natuerlich hattest Du Recht. So hohe Berge gibt es hier nicht, wenn man an 6000 Meter denkt. Auf meiner Karte waren die Hoehen in Fuss bestimmt. Entschuldigung. Naechstes Mal gucke ich genauer...<br><br>Heute wollte ich eigentlich auf den Berg hinaufklettern, aber mir wurde mehrfach davon ...

09.02.2009 Heute haben wir einen Action geladenen Tag vor uns. Wir haben einen 5 stuendigen Ausflug in nahegelegene Hoehlen vor uns. Um 8.00 Uhr geht es los. Unser Guide Neil faehrt uns zum 15 minuetig entfernten Hoehlensystem. Dort werden wir erstmal ausgeruestet: Neoprenanzug, Gummistiefel, Helm mit Lampe und ein Harnisch zum Abseilen. Toll sehen wir aus. ;) Unsere erste Action ist das Abseilen. Es geht 27 Meter in ...

... It will be ***********e little town, Waimarie, we spot a Saturday market and stop to stroll. We end up stopping a short while later on the highway and taking pictures of sheep grazing on the hillsides. When the animals graze on the hills, they leave these ridges along the sides of the hills. Today, when the sun was shining on them, the greens of the grass, with the blue sky and white clouds behind, they were very lovely to see. We stop for lunch in another ...

... enough. It hasnt let us down yet, so we're crossing out fingers that the car trouble could be over!! Its a Nissan Pulsar, much smaller than Margery so we had to ditch the matress, but everything else fits in with room to spare. Then we had the unpleasant task of trying to dispose of Margery. Sadly she was too broken to sell for parts to the garage, so we sold her to the scap yard for $50. An unfortunate end to our pretty car!

... Chris and Pam as they were only going to be in NZ another day. We are so lucky that they have opened up their house to us for this trip...we have truly been spoiled. We have spent a lot of time getting to know Oakura, a small sea-side surfer town. There is a gorgeous black sand beach that we have frequented many times already. Although I have been to an ocean on a few occasions, this was truly the first ...

... is the 2nd tallest (2518m) mountain in North Island. It has the near perfect cone-shape of a volcanic mountain and situated in the Egmont National Park. There're still strips of snow at the top. It last erupted in 1755. The movie "The Last Samurai" was filmed in New Plymouth with Mt Taranaki as the backdrop (as Mt Fuji). There're many treks around the mountain &amp; also a trek to the Summit. Nope, I don't intend to hike to the summit - having ...

... here in 2002. We got an early start the following morning in order to take in Mt Egmont national park and get a closer look at Mr Taranaki, plus we wanted to see Dawson Falls. The weather was once again against us that morning and upon arrival at the base of Mt Taranaki we knew there was no way we were going to be able to walk up it. The rain was coming down and the wind was blowing. A deceptively difficult mountain at the best of times and covered in snow from 800m up ...

Happy birthday to me!!! Yes, today is my birthday. As this is the case, and I am a million miles away from home, I thought I ought to do something pretty special to make up for it. So, today, in spite of it still being a bit wintery I had arranged to do the summit climb of Mt Taranaki. I had to leave Hamilton very early for the drive down to New Plymouth. It was a fairly scenic drive and I was disappointed not to be able to stop at all the touristy ...