Donna'S White House Kerikeri

... so ganz braun mit ein** grauen Schicht darüb** und schmecken angeblich am besten.
Irgendwann liefen die Tage dann imm** ähnlich ab, 6:30 Uhr nicht aufstehen wollen, dann v**schlafen irgendwie doch zur Arbeit **scheinen, abstacken, neue Boxen machen, Paletten stapeln, Pausen sehnlichst **warten und die Minuten bis zu selbig** zählen und 17:00 Uhr völlig kaputt zurückfahren.

Nach d** Arbeit fahren wir meistens in die „Stadt“ und gehen noch was fürs Abendessen ...

... sind wir dann los nach Tauranga Bay um Carmen und die Kinder zu treffen. Auf dem Weg sahen wir schon, dass wir dringends tanken muessen. Eigentlich wussten wir das schon am Vorabend aber haben dann morgens vergessen, es auch zu tun. Wir wollten auf die naechste Tankstelle warten und fuhren und fuhren und fuhren....da kam nichts. Das rote Licht blinkte schon und keine Tankstelle in Sicht. Wir waren uns sicher, dass es in Tauranga eine hat aber nichts ...

... rain the journey up here was BEAUTIFUL! I totally get why people like NZ now - it's hard to describe but the scenery in the Lord of the Rings is not CGI graphics! It's real! Trees, hills, and then in amongst the trees and hills there are palm trees - rugged landscape, streams, rivers, oceans.. you name it - it's surreal! So now I am in Paihia and staying at the Base Pipi Patch. A nice place and the dorm rooms are like little ...

... north. Things went fairly smoothly, depsite a few hairy moment trying to turn around on a 40 degree driveway after realising there was no way we'd fit under the Mitchells' car-port and, before long, we were on the motorway crossing the Harbour Bridge headed for Northland and the Bay of Islands. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that the luxury of being able to stand up in the van came at the price of being a big target for the wind, with ...

... minutes. The climb to altitude took 25 minutes. We spiraled and spiraled and spiraled with me sitting on my 'bum' in front of Gavin...both of us in the rear of the airplane on the floor. Pete sat where the passenger seat would have been facing us and Darren 'drove.' Pete popped the door open when we reached 12,000 feet and stepped out onto her 'veranda'--a homemade platform atop the right wheel holding onto the wing strut with one hand. She looked a bit otherworldly with her ...

The caves took more out of me than I had realised and I ended up in bed (in a delightfully otherwise unprecedently empty dorm room) by 8pm, sleeping right through until nearly 9am the following morning. The Friday bus journey to Auckland took in Hobbiton, which is now just a farm where you can pay to have mounds where the set for Lord of the Rings used to be pointed out. No thanks. I instead settled for a couple of cheesy pictures by the "Hobbiton" sign and a terrible statue of the ...

... water. It really was beautiful. I could have watched it for hours. In the distance I could see some clouds, and the wind was starting to pick up again. I decided to head for the lighthouse. When I got down there, there were only two signs left up on the post, London and Sydney! I decided I'd better head back to the car rather quickly as the clouds were rapidly moving in. It became really windy and it started to rain. The clouds were moving at an incredible speed. I'd ...

... and met up with someone else from work. We had a great night at The Homestead, dancing our socks off! Before leaving New Zealand our last stop was Auckland for a night. We stayed at Ponsonby Backpackers which was really nice and for my last night we went to see Westlife - all I can say is they were fab!! So I leave New Zealand now after 11 weeks, I have fallen in love with the beauty of this country and hope I can come back real soon. Farewell NZ...!

... but it was interesting to find out more about the history of New Zealand, although I'm sure it's all far more complicated. Later we went down to Pahia where we went on a boat trip around the Bay of Islands and drove through the "Hole in the Rock" with a spot of Dolphin watching also thrown in for the price! The dolphins came really close to the ...

... and star gazing and then the real brave could go for a moonlight swim! And I was one of the brave ones! At least I pretended to be brave but I was sh*tting myself! Kept expecting Jaws or some crazed eels to come along and eat me or something!! But I survived and got back on board for a well earned cup of tea by the log fire before heading off to my bunk to the sound of the waves and kiwis and dolphins! Pure heaven! What a great way to end my second week!!