Kensington Lodge Motel Whangarei

... came over to take our order,
he was a cockney proud to call this 'his ' bar. Looking no more than
20 it must be his Dad's money we reckoned. We ordered our pizza and
drinks, the pizza were really nice in fact!

It was then back in the car for the
drive back to Whangarei. We enjoyed the last slice of pudding from
the other day (making Dean very pleased) we stayed up to sort out a
few things for our time in USA and went to bed.

_ ...

... the arrival of my new travel buddy. I think the gods were on holiday though the day I decided to check out Abel Tasman National Park. I booked myself onto a cruise & fly tour to really try and experience the coastline in all its glory, but the sun was not shining and my plan of basking on the golden beach, staring at the turquoise water was replaced by drinking red wine sat by a roaring open fire for 4 hours! Equally enjoyable though. The flight back was cool ...

I can't believe it, or more to the point, I don't want to believe it. today is my last full day here in NZ. All the planning and setting up the trip on and off over the last year or so, and now it's coming to an end. But hey, there's still one day to go, and in any case I've just heard that flights out of Suvarnabhumi airport are affected by protest action so maybe I won't get back to England quite as quickly as I was ...

Vital Statistics Kaihu Farm - Kaihu Farm, distance traveled about 10km, Likelihood of death rating: High Short * It was raining and windy so stayed semi-still today. * Met nice people went to look at big tree's * Had hot spring. In full: I set of this morning with every intension of going to Opononi (which i think sounds like 'I want a pony') but I set off and it was either very strong winds (like might just blow you over sort of strong) or heavy rain ...

... we washed up. So ha. Anoth** night spent enjoying a tipple and have an early enough night (12am). Up again to enjoy the gorgeous view from Noah's deck. So pretty. Had some brekkie, then Noah went to make coffee while Fi went to the loo. Of course, when Fiona leaves the room, myself and Lorraine naturally hide on h**! Tucked away behind the door, th**e we w**e hands ov** mouths to keep ...

... I wasn't going to miss out so I marched over to Rent-a-dent and hired a car for the day. I booked myself on a guided tour which consisted of a walk round the enclosures being introduced to all the big cats. It took about 90 minutes in total and was really interesting. They have some gorgeous tigers and lions there including Aslam from the movie Narnia. After the Gardens I headed over to Whangarei Falls then onto A.H ...

Griass eich! 05/05/2008 Heute in einem Monat sind wir schon wieder zu Hause! ma, die Zeit vergehts.. wir freun uns schon wieder auf zu hause, aber die restliche Zeit geniessen wir trotzdem, oder gerade deswegen! :) Wir wollten heute die Bay of Islands erkunden, aber das Wetter spielt leider nicht mit. Wir hatten trotzdem einen schoenen Tag in Paihia. Und das "Friedensreich Hundertwasser - Klo" in Kawakawa konnten wir uns auch ...

... De volgende dag ben ik even wezen winkelen en besloten Anna en ik samen naar een middagvoorstelling in de bioscoop te gaan. The Bucketlist bleek een wat aangrijpende film, over twee mannen die elkaar ontmoeten in het ziekenhuis, net voordat ze een chemokuur ondergaan. Als ze horen dat ze nog slechts 6 maand te leven hebben, besluiten ze een lijst te gaan maken van alle dingen die ze nog wilden doen "before they kick the bucket". Woendags besloot ik een ...

Now everyone will try and tell you that there is nothing on the North Island and that you should head straight for the South Island, cos its far more beautiful and thats where all the action is. Never ones to listen to the advice of others, we decided not to head south straight away and instead headed up the Northland hitting all the beaches on the west coast first. So with our brand spankin set of wheels we headed for the black sand beach of Muriwai ...

... more than my European trip had been two years before. It was so overwhelming that a couple of the North Americans who had just finished a Contiki tour of Australia later told me they learnt more about Australia during their time in New Zealand than when they were actually in Australia.

After stopping at a park of native kauri trees, we had lunch in Whangarei. I don’t know if there is some ordinance somewhere that ...