Milestone Cottages North Island

... and the odd bit of Pirates to keep the boys happy. Lucy visited it last year when we were over here, and has been desperate to visit again ever since we arrived. She was really good and decided only to buy a little bit of bling for her finger and to save her birthday money for the toy shop!

Luckily for Lucy the toy shop had a sale on. She knew just how much cash she had to spend and she spent every cent - she obviously can calculate ...

... Brownie zu probieren. Lecker lecker...

Auf unserem weiteren Weg kamen wir an Leigh vorbei - hier sollte es eine Bucht (Goat Island) geben, in der man schnorcheln kann und viele grosse Fische sehen soll. Das - dachten wir zu dem Zeitpunkt jedenfalls - konnten wir uns heute wohl abschminken. Dort angekommen, meinte die Frau in der Touri-Info gleich, dass der Regen keinen Einfluss auf die Unterwassersicht haette. Und da es nicht windig war, sollte die Sicht gut sein.
Also ...

... mo). We went to a car auction last Wed & had a great time watching all the business taking place. It was also quite amusing for me watching Leszek try and talk to me without using his hands or nodding - we almost bought 3 vehicles by accident...

A big congrats to Magdalena & Milo on their recent wedding. Sorry to have missed it & hope you had a wonderful day. We wish you all the best for the future & look forward to seeing you next year ...

... in the saddle (it don't get dark here until about 9) but the pain i was in soon told me to cut the hard line attitude right out. I sat in the spa pool for a good hour sipping a bundy, chatting to Jackson hoping it would be therapeutic enough to allow me a painless nights sleep and fresh legs again tomorrow morning. We'll see... 03-12-08 73 Kms to Kaikoura. Cocka-doodle-fackin-doo! It was to be expected as there were plenty of chickens and roosters roaming around the campsite, just ...

... the fish as they swim by. This day however the weather wasn't the best and the sea was fairly rough and the fish decided to hide a bit more. We DID see one bright BRIGHT blue fish that more looked fit for an aquarium, but it also dashed onwards real quick before we could try to take a picture... Later that evening Chrissy drove us back to the motel in her old Jaguar, which truly sounds ferocious when she ...

... several thousand. After spending several hours enjoying the beach (and exhausting ourselves with all the physical effort of rock hopping :P) we went to Matakana. There we had some fries at the local pub and then some delicious ice cream across the street at a place called "Blue". And that concluded another relaxing day that turned out to be exhausting :P P.S. Sorry we forgot to mention it before, but our tripod has been recovered. So all is well again with the luggage... :)

... was no shade. We were joined for lunch by a flock of sea gulls and it was fun to watch the hierarchy at work. We nicknamed three of the birds ("leader ", "second in command" and "bad beak"). The beach was of white sand and we both went swimming in the sea which had huge waves. While body boarding on one wave, Steve was flipped right over in a forward roll and had his head slammed against the floor. A final stop was at the Whangerai Falls, which would have ...

... the motor to get out of the harbour, then raised the sails (which gave us a brief taste of pulling on the appropriate ropes) to cross over to Tiritiri Matangi island. We both took a turn at the wheel, which was a little strange (but slightly similar to trying to drive a campervan in high winds!), then settled back to relax in the sun while the professionals took over. At Tiritiri we anchored and inflated the dinghy, then went ashore to walk around the island. The whole place ...

We drove to tawharanui through the pouring rain to a little secluded campsite in a national park. We telephoned the ranger and he told us to park up in the car park and we tried to hide from the wind behind a bush in a beautiful bay. We posted $20 through his letterbox for staying the night and spent our first night without electricity, candles all around the van ...

... naar de pub gegaan (zondag is echt de dag om al die motoren te zien) en hebben een paar biertjes gedronken. Ook heb ik 3-1 van hem gewonnen met pool! Haha! En dus erg veel (mooie! grote!) motoren en een opgevoerde tractor... Deze tractor is de snelste van Nieuw Zeeland (ze doen er wedstrijdjes mee) en maakt met enorm veel kabaal "donuts" op de weg; erg grappig.

Op maandag ben ik verder gegaan met het gronden van de deuren en 's avonds zijn we ...