Otaika Motel Whangarei

... visit today instead. This place is awesome, you can get so close to the Cats it's amazing. The interaction between the animals and the handlers is a site to behold. Our guide was a South African and one of the White Tigers had for some reason taken a dislike to him; wherever he walked the Tiger watched him intensely; when he went close to the compound, the Tiger launched himself against the fence trying to attack him; it was scary and you ...

... br>big enough to keep. So the lads carried on fishing, Dean was
determined to catch a shark!!! Charmain and Michelle had a chat.

Waiting and waiting... a little while
longer Dean had a tug on his line, he reeled it in and found he had
caught a snapper...ooo and it was big enough to keep. Yayeee we had
caught something for dinner, not the Shark that Dean was hoping for
though. So the continued to fish. Ethan was wanting to catch a big
fish too. Simon ...

... I then headed to Lake Tekapo. This was my first encounter of the beauty that New Zealand was to behold. It was as if someone had drawn the place in pastels or chalk and I had jumped into the picture Mary Poppins styley.....the water was a blue I had never experienced before....there were snow capped mountains in the distance and fox gloves framed the picture. I could have stayed there forever. I soon discovered that this was only the start.....glaciers, lakes, and ...

... while searching for Whangarei hostels in our trusty BBH Hostel directory, we found the Little Earth Lodge, a "green" hostel located right near the Abbey Caves, which housed a little glowworm sanctuary. And it was all FREE to visit! So Little Earth Lodge was quickly booked as our last New Zealand hostel. We left the Bay of Islands in sunshine and headed on the scenic drive through some lovely coastal towns - Sandy Bay and Matapouri to name a ...

... can tell is more than showers but less than continuous rain. * I cycled past sheep, cows and numerous pretty birds (the sort with wings). * I saw only one truck, a huge articulated one full of wheatabix, which they must really like here. * I ate the sandwich which turned out to be horrid. * I made it back to town, I could have turned off for the hostel and avoided the final climb, but I wanted to buy some less healthy food i.e. cheesecake. Another of my friends ...

Here are some photos from when I was in the Northland area, which is north of Auckland. I posted them a while ago but didn't update the blog. This was my 2nd week of travelling and was before I bought my car. Yes, I have included some pics of 'Fern' aka 'The Silver Fern'. She's still running like a dream and I'm very thankful to have my own wheels!!

... no se, cien gallos, no se, la verdad, un monton y cada dia recogia unos 20 huevos, misteriosamente algunos eran medio azules, pero estaban riquisimos tambien... Maxine era ese tipo de mujer que te relaja, todas las noches despues de cenar, nos quedabamos hablando y a mi me adormecia, quizas era el cansancio tambien pero es un encanto de persona. Nacio en Zimbawe, emigro a Sudafrica y hace unos 20 anyos que vive en nueva zelanda y lleva tres anyos con su suenyo de tener ...

... and then another look at the 'Whangarei Falls', now back to a pretty cascade after yesterday's torrents. Late afternoon and we were back in 'Tutukaka', where we booked into the modern hotel for two nights. Distance driven 157 Km 97 miles Thursday 29th May An early start and in the dive centre for 8am, to leave the jetty at 8.30. On the way out I spotted an old RNLI lifeboat that had served in 'Weymouth' in England, now ...

... surface. Then we inner tubed thru the underground stream and walked thru the cave in the dark while admiring the glow worms hanging from the ceiling. We did a bit of rock climbing and squeezing through tight crevasses which was nerve racking for me since I'm a bit claustrophobic. And then we had to rock climb our way back out of the cave which I was a bit worrried about, but ended up not having a problem with. In order to calm ...

... by a tunnel at low tide. We also saw Royal Albatrosses which are huge birds with like 10ft wingspans. Three days ago we started our journey to Queenstown (where I am now) by taking the scenic southern route thru a region called The Catlin Coast. We saw amazing scenery the entire way. We even stood on the southern-most point of the south island. Yesterday I was literally 5 feet from a Sea Lion on the beach ...