Park Lodge Motel Te Awamutu

... you want to see evidence, see the F book.

We didn't do a cave activity: in hindsight this probably would have been fun, but we are skanks already and have tight tight purses that won't let us draw out money. Damn purse. Instead, we got drunk in the random bar near the hostel. Random, random night, from which 5 of the 12 people signed up for the trip the next day made it. Good times.

... bit of NZ countryside before we headed back to Auckland and flew to Sydney, Australia for a week of sightseeing in a big city. We'll go from a country with a population of about 4.5 million to a city of about that same number. We've had an incredible time these past 30 days driving the winding roads, exploring as much as can be done in that amount of time. The weather has been impressive and at times caused us to make adjustments to our plans, nothing ...

... hidden unmarked bumps. You certainly wouldnt want to drive your brand new sports car round here, it would be destroyed by the end of a drive. However, driving is lovely, some amazing scenery and impossible to get lost, with no other roads for 100km a time, and about 2 other cars spotted on the 4 hour drive..

So we finally got there and checked into our "hostel", which was a chalet in the middle of a farm, very cosy indeed with its log fire, complete with an axe and ...

... demonstration, the world record for sheep shearing is around 720 in a day, in the time allowed this amounts to one every 40seconds. We were also shown how they use dogs to round the sheep whether in a small flock, or large of about 3000!

At 1.30 Steph and I have black water rafting! We really didn't know what to expect. Basically, this involved hiking down into an underground river in a ...

... living on the cave ceiling above the water. Above the lake was a large hall which also had glow-worms, and is possible to be used for a variety of functions. In the evening, we headed to a sleepy drive-through village called Taipu, where we shared a room above a local pub. James was more concerned about not being murdered by the redneck locals more than anything else!

... would in the sunlight, and I imagine what it would be like to spend your days playing in the dark. Here they give us hot chocolate and coconut squares with airs of being kind, but ;mostly to prevent imminent hypothermia, as next we grab our tubes and jump into the water, which is glacier-alicious. We paddle and walk and paddle some more. Josh One Dread stops and rambles about glow worms... I'm not really paying attention, more trying to warm myself by force of ...

Day 202 - Beautiful day today and as I met Linda (a family friend from home) under the giant metal trout by the lake in Taupo, the weather was on our side! I was early and so sat by the lake and admired the stunning view of Tongariro from across the lake. When Linda arrived we got a coffee outside by the lake in Taupo and she had some very exciting news that she had been asked for a job interview the ...

Having spend a couple of days traveling up from Queenstown to Te Awamutu via Christchurch and Auckland Kristy picked me up from town and we headed to her place, right on her parents dairy farm. That afternoon I went out on the farm with Kristy firstly moving some cows from one paddock to another on a quad bike and with her parents then later it was milking time. The farm is rather high-tech from my limited farm knowledge and after moving them from ...

Things have settled into domestic bliss, at least that is what I keep telling myself when Nic goes to work and I stay home EVERY day.We have moved to Te Awamutu and have a great place. It is a 3 bedroom condo with a garage and a little yard and Nic's work pays for it all. Not bad... The town itself is quite small but at least I can't get lost...I have tried, I really can't. One of the main roads downtown is called Sloane Street ...

... occasional farm house. It was great fun and I was a little sorry I found the sealed highway again when I continued down to New Plymouth. I was hoping for views of Mount Taranaki but, after circling around much of it on my left as I skirted Cape Egmont, the dense cloud cover all over it didn’t budge. I was now on the Surf Highway, and took a couple of side roads to my right to check out some of the many signposted beaches. The seas were grey and choppy ...