Asure Kapiti Court Motel Paraparaumu

... a wall of expectant faces looked up and then looked disappointed when we weren’t the loved ones they were waiting for. I’m looking forward to being on the receiving end of that welcome hen we return home next year.
Outside the airport we caught a shuttle bus to our first hostel: The Old Country House, we checked in after a little confusion with our new currency! Well we had just stepped of a very long flight! Both of the guys on the desk were brits!
Our room is ...

... Paraparam/Waikanai for a very pleasant dinner.

Day 56 Monday 31st August Paraparaumu on the Kapiti Coast
We woke to a sunny day after heavy brain yesterday.
Went for a drive around the district with much development evident. This area has become the retirement haven for Wellingtonians.
Visited some interesting stores at Lindale lunch in the sun looking out to Kapiti Island, and an hour to ...

... Peninsula. To get there, we drive through windy cliff roads with pretty good drop offs. It is dark and I am still getting used to driving on the left side of the road. I scare Kristin pretty good when I drift to the outside of the road and cross the white line. Sometimes there are guard rails, but not always. I wish that I would have driven this route during the daytime as it is beautiful. The cars fly on this road. It is a holiday ...

... an expereince onto itself and one I think I will always daydream of when Im back in grey and monotonus reality. However, with all beauty lies the potential for danger of course...hell bent on making up time to reach our next destination, we ploughed on through Napier (a quaint art deco town we found which was rebuilt after a devestating earthquake in the 30s) and found ourselves up the side of a mountain. At 10pm in the pitch darkness. In a torrential ...

... the only native English speaker. The fact we were all girls, so sports questions were out and we had no knowledge of New Zealand trivia probably didn't help either. Admittedly, the drunk old man in the corner helped us out a bit, until he pretty much fell off his bar stool. And then we were on our own. But we still managed to come about half-way up the table of results, so not bad really! There's not really much to say about Wellington. Its main attraction, other than ...

We got into Wellington, NZ at around 3pm on the 1st. April picked us up from the airport - I can't believe it's been almost 10 years since I was here to visit her last! Of course, this time it's a totally different trip. Last time we spent 2 weeks driving around the South Island, attempting to kill ourselves a different way everyday (sea kayaking ...

... people's opinions, New Zealand must never agree on anything.  The other day I was sitting at home well before school started, wanting to travel.  My friend needed to get to  Christchurch for uni and I decided to tag along as far as wellington.  This was the furtherest I had been south in the north island and it was going to be about a 9 or 10 hour trip.  My friend Alex had a mini from 1950 that had broken down three times before getting out of Auckland so I had hope that ...

... setting & our candles ,when music started from a group in tents with a guitar, it was 60s music, one of the songs kev & rach kept on singing in ausy, plus few others, surrounding people were even joining in the singing, the van alongside us i thought were english & i was waiting to have a pleasant conversation with them, but i changed my mind when the guy started to complain & say it was just noise,i just disagreed with him saying they ...

... well, baz is a suit and tie IT executive by day, but a hunting, diving and fishing kiwi by night ... he said there might be a possibility of doing several outdoor activities when we come over... STOKED!!! he promised to take me diving for abalone, sea urchin and take me hunting to shoot rabbit and wild goat! AWESOME!... well, we had everything planned, but it didn't work out... :( the weather was not good enough to go diving (this area can get really really windy) and baz ...

... it, you should! Gravity Canyon took about 2 hours so after that it was across the desert road and onto Taupo. When we reached Taupo it was tipping down with rain which is never good for putting up a tent but we managed and the final product was very livable. Had a late dinner of Chinese as the BBQ was not recommended to be used inside a tent and then crashed in preperation for white water rafting tomorrow. A good albeit wet start to the trip!