Stonehaven Motel Whangarei

... see the true power of these creatures; you wouldn’t stand a chance against one of these in the wild!! Kids got to feed both White Tigers and White Lions, they were thrilled. This truly is a wonderful place and all the cats are on the endangered species list, with one breed of Lion (The Barbery Lion) now is extinct in the wild. The tour lasted about 1 ½ hours and the sun was in and out of cloud cover but when it was out it was like ...

... was lucky to catch 2 on the same line but we
put them back in the sea.

We decided to head back from our
fishing stop over the bumpy waters, bounce bounce,some of the waves
were even bigger than the ones going. We made a stop at a spot where
Charmain and Simon spend many of the Christmases on the Boat and
having a BBQ. ( SO jealous) We went to the Pizza marina, ordered 2
pizzas and headed back to a pretty spot not too far away to enough
the pizza and ...

... galore! My one word for New Zealand...."Breathtaking!" or as the Kiwis like to say, "Sweet As". I then headed to Mount Cook, but due to the temperate climate was hostel bound whilst the rain poured and the wind howled and I did not get to hike around the area....next time! Strangely though, 30 mins down the road they were basking in glorious sunshine. Mountain climates hey, who'd have them! I then hit Queenstown to hook up with the friends that I met in ...

... As usual, we drove on long winding roads with blind curves and steep dropoffs. And as usual, they were pretty deserted so we had the beautiful sand beaches and aqua blue waters to ourselves. And like most days, clouds rolled in and out and put a chill in the air. When we were almost in Whangarei, we stopped at a park with a waterfall and had a quick look. After our visit to Iguazu Falls in Argentina, other falls seem insignificant! At ...

... not the one who accused me of looking like a barrel from to many fish & chips, accused me of treating my holiday like boot camp and much as I wouldn't mind ending up looking like G.I Jane with more hair the proof positive my day was not like boot camp is, I doubt on the boot camps schedule is hockey pokey cheesecake and watching die hard 4.0 in the evening. * In my two days 'off' I have though cycled 97.45km, without my stuff though which does make it easier.

... things. as we approached Whangarei (pronounced FUNG-gah-ray) which is on the east coast and the most developed town in the Northland, we first passed through the area of Whangarei Heads. they're basically huge cliffs that mark the end of a sand spit jutting from the Bream Head peninsula across Whangarei harbor. I was dropped off at the Whangarei info center at around 11 or so and I walked the 5 minutes to my hostel, a cute little home that a nice man named Peter and his ...

... granjita, asi que se iba dos veces por semana a su curso de horticultura organica. Conocimos una noche a Tracy y Ho, una parejita inglesa-maori muy maja. El era aboriginal nueva zelandes, los maoris y una noche nos fuimos con ellos a cenar a una especie de centro cultural de maories que llevaba su mujer para integrarlos y unir fuerzas. Ella es super especial y le cogi tambien mucho carinyo, algo mutuo que alegra encontrarte en el viaje.... La escuela del pueblo, de unos 80 ...

... at the other side of the world. The 'Poor Nights Islands', named by Captain Cook, are 23Km offshore and it took us 45 minutes to reach them. Kitted up and into a cool, 17deg sea to pass through kelp forests on the slope of the old volcano, that had broken up to form the islands. Masses of interesting fish, some of them tropical by the quirk of a warm current that flows down to here from Asia. Over lunch we motored into the ...

... after our rafting and caving adventures Jen and I headed to the small beach community of Raglan, where they filmed part of Endless Summer many decades ago. Jen wanted to try and catch a few waves before she left and she was successful at getting a few in Manu Bay, a beach with the longest left hand break in the world. You go girlfriend! After a few days of R&R I sadly took Jen to Aukland where she departed back for home. I'm ...

... We stopped at several beautiful waterfalls and saw stunning coastlines. The Southern Sea is so rough- you can't even imagine. It was crashing along the cliffs the entire way. We saw waves break that must have been literally 40-50 feet high. The splashing water would hit us up on cliffs like 200 ft above the sea!! Anyways, we camped at Purakuani Falls like 2 nights ago and at like 10pm Jenn and I went ...