Waiheke Island Resort and Conference Centre

... here. This area is now known as Tikipunga. In the 1880s and 1900s the falls were a very popular picnic spot. People came from Whangarei by carriage, horse or on foot for a days outing"<br><br>I was going to walk down to the bottom of the falls but it started to rain so I got under way. I drove down to Auckland, via Matakana (don&#8217;t ask!) stopping at Warkworth and Orewa for breaks. The scenery was spectacular. I wished I could have stopped and taken more photos.<br><br>I ...

... may be pushing it - so I've set my mind on spending a week in French Polynesia at the end of the New Zealand trek. I'll go about booking that momentarily - after which I've spotted a Belgian Bar which serves proper beer and mussels which could rather take the edge of the bad weather. Tomorrow I start the Stray Bus trail around the country. I must say I'm less organised than I've ever been - I've no hostel booked ...

... and eat we head to bed. 24th I get up early while Kim dozes and get on with phoning the repair places all over Auckland and Hamilton in a bid to save us as much money as we can. The last thing we need at this stage is a bond of $1500 taken from our cards as that would put a dent in our final tallies financially. I get reference numbers and referrals all over the place and finally track down a repair place in Hamilton which has windscreens in stock and can get it sorted that morning, to the ...

... a valuable insight into the history of New Zealand, it's also an absolute must for school children to visit, it's so so interesting, there's something for everyone. After a stroll around the gardens we set off for Parnell &amp; Newmarket, which we were told were really good for shopping for presents and locally produced goods, well that proved to be debatable but one thing they certainly were was expensive. I found an unusual fruit bowl which was a ...

... a lie.  In reality it was a 40 minute walk.  We got there in time to see the noise control leave and the party start to move to a new friends house.  We met up with my house mates girlfriend in time for her to grab something that smelled like cleaning product and pour it in a cup for me.  Before long we all piled in to a cab and made our way over to a new house.  Completely lost, I knew I couldn't leave now and was trying to remember how many degrees away I knew ...

... the beach - but as I was heading out, Claudia from Germany asked if we could go together. She's also in New Zealand to learn English, which was interesting as she's not quite as far along as the Swiss folks were. So I was figuring out what she meant a lot throughout the day and helping define words, etc. It was interesting. Anyway, we took the ferry (and saw tons of sailboats, including the Soren Larsen and Spirit of New ...

... in the aforementioned town of Whakapapa. It's not just the pronunciation of this place that is a little warped. Whakapapa is a historically dangerous area with more than its share of erupting volcanoes, lava flows and earthquakes. Also adding to the injury tally, many visitors come to climb the snow capped mountains, go white water rafting, or take multi-day treks through/over the volcanoes, all with the town's blessing. When checking into our ...

... filled with lots of pretty sail boats. We arrived in Aukland in the evening and headed to a pub called "The Bog" for a drink, mainly because Jeremy spotted the Guinness sign out front. For the first time since we began our trip, I got carded, which I found annoying because the drinking age here is only 18. Shannon, on the other hand, was thrilled. There was a two-man band playing some interesting covers. We heard a ...

... cycling and walking but after seeing the forested hills upon arrival under the sweltering heat I quickly changed my mind, so the walks ended up being a lot shorter than planned and always ended up at the beach. This was how I stumbled across my first nudist beach in New Zealand (Palm Beach). So taking this opportunity to rid myself of my white bottom I stripped off and spent the rest of the day reading and swimming. Stupidly I didn't put enough sun cream on and by the ...

... ostensibly just inviting us. He explained it wasn't a war Haka (like the All Blacks do before a match), but a gentle, healing Haka, more akin to yoga. There would be singing and music, and apparently these people can "produce tremendous energy" from a group. Right then. Along with Saskia, we arrived at a large, beautiful, Tuscan-villa style house out in the hills overlooking the vineyards of Waiheke, inhabited by a couple who could afford to be opulently bohemian. As we made small ...