Arches on Tree Top Lodge Whangarei

If I have learnt one thing on this trip, it is that I am perhaps not cut out for coldwater diving. Squeezed into layers, yes layers, of wetsuit, I am sure I was more suitably attired for skiing in the 70's than scuba. The hooded ensemble initially gave Graham an air of milk tray man. Defogging my mask revealed a hippy in a rubber suit.

Not that diving the Poor Knights wasn’t spectacular ...

Hello again!

It is with great sadness and disappointment that I report our first bad experience with WWOOFing. After a great weekend in Kaitaia and Cape Reinga we were more than excited to get to Whangarei. The farm we were booked to stay at grew their own chili peppers, avocados, bananas, tomatoes and potatoes, among other things. It was going to be our first real producing farm. We'll get to where it all went wrong in a moment.

The drive from Kaitaia to Whangarei was ...

... I've never fallen asleep on my bike and missed half the views.

I'll give it to bus though they usefully:

* Quick
* Dry

After a night in Rotorua, where I met James, a Scottish guy who'd been in New Zealand 4 days, had planned to stay 3 weeks but had already decided he was never going back. At first he claimed to have a job offer already but as the conversation progressed it turned ...

... pretty and interesting walk. Simmo said it was more like an assult course before he slipped and ended up doing the splits (at his age!) in the stream!! Funny sight but I did make sure he was ok before I started laughing!!! Hehe. Off to Play Golf that afternoon. Simmo went in to pay and I was getting the clubs sorted when I fell out of the camper like a sack of ...

... Eltern sind am Strand zugange und weiter unten am Strand werden Speedboote fuer ein Rennen fertig gemacht. Gegen Mittag fluechten wir aus der Sonne und machen ein kleines Nickerchen ;). Spaeter gehen wir dann noch mal fuer ein Stuendchen zum Strand und geniessen die Sonne, den Wind und lassen unsere Fuesschen vom Meer umspuelen ;) Dissabte XXXI - I - MMIX Avui ens aixecarem aviat, aproximadament seran les 7am. Mandrejarem durant tot el dia!!! Visca!!! Anem a la ...

... the first Lord of the Rings at the hostel and spotted all the places we had been to. The reason we came to Whangarei was to dive at the Poor Knights Islands off the coast at Tutukaka, named by Jacques Cousteau as his 7th favourite dive site in the world. The water was colder than we had been in before, only 20 degrees so we had extra thick wetsuits and lots of weight and there was big swells pushing you onto the rocky islands then sucking you back out which was mad ...

... to the boat, less cold than the first dive. 45 minutes at 14m. More colourful than the average Moylaun Rock dive; nudibranchs and a big crayfish; pretty dramatic, but not in the "blocks of flats" league for topography and much less adventurous. I'd say a score draw. Some time later I discovered a badly-bruised toe that must have happened while I was too numb to feel it. By then I'd stopped at the ...

... in doen. Ook moest je je masker half vol laten lopen met water en dan, onder water, door middel van het uit ademen via je neus, het masker weer leeg laten lopen. Na de eerste duik en na de lunch vaarden we naar een andere locatie waar de rest een tweede duik zou nemen. Mijn instructrice kwam toen naar mij toe en vroeg of ik samen met haar ook nog een tweede duik wilde nemen. Nou dat leek mij wel wat dus heb ik mij weer ...

... We relaxed, read and chuckled at the messages scrawled in the toilets in marker pen. Rather than your usual offers of old men looking for young lads (for building work, I presume), these were written by the owner, presumably following a group of grim campers stating "if you wont (sic) live like pigs, stay home!" We trekked out to see the falls close up then decided to again head off for somewhere new. We arrived in Whangarei a couple of days ago and have really ...

... We stopped at Kawakawa, a place noted for colourful tile works. Whangarei is a town of about 50000 people. But its streets are full of churches. Some solid buildings, some prefab-ish churches. Locals despair "tagging" - marking and graffiti on walls and public buildings. Locals say that this was a grave concern and complain about the lack of discipline, employment and meaningful raison d'etre amongst the ...