Cypress Court Motel Whangarei

Departed Orewa Campsite and travelled up the Hibiscus Highway coast road heading for Pakiri. Fantastic scenery all around and had to negotiate some seriously steep mountain roads to get to where we were headed but was it worth it! Absolutely spectacular views. Pakiri campsite is situated at the end of a long dirt track and was rather difficult to negotiate in the van but we managed it eventually. Had a lovely pick nick ...

... br>Charmain mentioning. We stop off, the free samples were well nice
butt we could resist buying some for ourselves. Quite expensive but
afterall it was hand made chocolates.

We drove through the small town towards
a Kiwi Sancuary on the other side in the hope to spot one. We are
given a map so we can walk the walk and told that Kiwis are nocturnal
and we will not see one.. booo, but Hamm got his piccie by a stuffed
one instead.

We did the ...

... and it paid off as I had one seal playing right in front of me. He formed a perfect circle, nose to tail and spun round and round in circles like a catherine wheel. Unfortunately he was so close that I couldn't even get a photo. I am still to develop my underwater camera. I really hope I have a couple of good shots...it's so difficult though as, with the dolphins, these creatures move so fast! I had to drag myself out of bed at 4.30am for the dolphin swim, but ...

... forest that surrounded the caves. And while it sounded strange to us, it was indeed a rock forest with strange rock formations and structures spread across a large forested area. It felt kind of "Lord of the Rings" ish, with all the rocks spread through the forest and creating natural archways and doorways and walls. It was a great finish to a wonderful unexpected secret on the North Island! We finished out the day at Little Earth Lodge by ...

... the hostel, I showered and went out to look at the town (alone). Never has a town more reflected a mood, almost everywhere was shut and miserable looking people wandered between the one or two open places (it was about 7pm on Sunday), it was gray. The following evening when Martin called to ask me to cycle with him again, I explained I'd be staying another day. It would have been a good story of how we met but sadly we just didn't gel.

... encrusting life-- everything from anemones and soft coral to urchins and nudibranchs, or sea slugs, that were a brilliant yellow and indigo blue. earlier I had asked the captain if we had a chance of seeing stingrays as the Poor Knights are a well known breeding site of theirs, to which he replied that there hadn't been much around lately but that anything could turn up. well no more than 10 minutes into our 50 min dive we saw one swim right by stephanie and i! we were ...

... was, the track soon turned to mud and then to muck. At the 35 minute mark, we realized that the trail ended not back where we started but, as it clearly said, 35 minutes down river. So, we backtracked. No worries. Continuing North, we headed for the ferry that woul take us to Russell, the oldest European settlement--and one time capital--in New Zealand. We checked into the Russell Cottages where we have a lovely "home" with a full kitchen ...

... with elephants. (yep okay - you've had you're laugh - we mean real elephants!!) 29th May we leave Thailand and fly to Phnom Penh - full of french colonial history and museums dedicated to the victims of the Khmer Rouge and the Killing Fields. We also hope to visit the firing range and play with AK47s and other live ammo!! - Guess that must sound a bit like an oxy-moron! Moron being the ...

... garden. The breakfast they gave the following morning but served in the main house and was tasty. We had the rest of the afternoon and evening to explore Whangarei. We headed into town to have lunch at a cafe on the waterfront and checked out the many, high quality galleries and souveneir shops. We then walked around town some more--taking in some fun shops (amoung these a good sewing shop with nice quilting materials), visiting several parks and gardens (the nicest of ...

... de poisson, notamment des raies en-veux-tu-en-voila, et franchement, pas mal de coins interessants (arches, grottes, tombants sublime). Le pied total. JJ (toujours Cousteau) avait raison (en tout cas, c'est parmi les 10 meilleurs que JE connaisse, ce qui est loin d'etre dur). C'en est au point qu'avant meme de rentrer au port, on se decide a passer notre deuxieme niveau de plongee sur les 2 journees suivantes histoire d'en profiter un peu plus ...