the end of NZ.......for now

well folks we have finished in NZ and are flying to melbourne tomorow morning! cant wait to get there and see family!
we have loved nz, right from when we got here, explored auckland and all the sights, like the sky tower, the harbour, the 5 storey high santa clause, the parks, the uni, and maybe the shops justa little bit..
then when we planned our trip up north we loved the bus we picked, great driver, great sense of humour (well i thought so!!) stunning views all the way up the west espcially our lunch stop at the forest with the giant Kauri tree. And our first stop in opononi was incredible from the top of the hill it looked perfect and when we got down there it was better than that, perfect beaches with spectacular hills behind and most importantly great weather! hightlight of that stop apart from the crazy hitchhikers and romfordians we met was definatly the sand surfing
next was our trip across to Paihia which was brilliant, a bit more built up and geared to tourists so loads to see and do, amazing forest there great beaches which we couldnt get enough of, yt more crystal clear water! and a cheap ferry across to Russell which was a bit like opononi just a little bigger beautful views and beach loved our day across there. Our little break from Paihia up to KeriKeri was really good fun as well with our hillside hostel with table tennis, pool, and wide screen TV was enough but add on to that the chocolate factory visit (with free samples!!) and the rainbow falls river walk and river swim it wsas a great stop off! Then back down to Paihia where the weather had got even warmer so we hit the beach big time for a couple of days before we headed back to auckland to prepare to leave!
back here we met up with a uni buddy - craig, had a great night played soime cards, swapped travlling storys and ate cheap chinese!! loved it
then our second to last day we walked round the opposite side of the harbour to see the amazing harbour bridge, definatly worth it!
unfortunatly we have been struck down with heavy rain on our last day, but never mind!! we ave taken it easy today, few board games, bit of lunch before we head of to the airport!!

really have loved NZ and wish we had more time to explore south of where we were, but who knows for the future!

Bye NZ - Hello Oz!

Well our last day in paradise that is the Bay of Islands! Heading back to Auckland to catch our flight to Oz! Can't wait. We have had bright sunshine and put that to good use by spending that last few days relaxing on the beach! We even treated ourselves to a bottle of chilled wine just to complete the package. Yesterday we visited Adventure World and had a game of 18 hole Crazy golf that wound up the hillside. It was hilarious, especially Baz's face when he lost!! Once reaching the top, a quick way down was to throw yourself down the massive water slide, landing into a huge pool of freezing cold water-and yip believe it or not, Barry couldn't resist! He walked home soaked! All worth it though. Summing up our experience of the the Northland and the Bay of Islands; beautiful, enchanting and definately worth a visit. We've had an amazing time. Next time you hear from us we'll be temporary Aussies!

Last day in Kerikeri

We've had a brilliant time up here. With weather like this we wish we were near a beach! It's been very hot the last few days. Yesterday we walked a 6km forest trail running along side the river leading us to Rainbow Falls. It really was a spectactular sight! Couldn't believe the height of the waterfall and the sound was immense. Baz had to have to have a dip although I wouldn't go as far to say he actually swam! Almost. It was brilliant- well worth the hike to get there,and glad to report no blisters or sunburn. Only pain endured was inflicted by Baz's singing! After that action packed day, we've just had a quiet day today. Done a clothes wash and sat in the sunshine playing numerous games of Uno with other residents. Tomorrow we head back to Paihia and will stay at the Mousetrap as we enjoyed it so much last time. (Hopefully this time we wont be sharing a dorm with a 60yr old man who forgets to take his fogetful pills!! Worrying!)

KeriKeri

Another lovely place, KeriKeri. Our hostel is set up in the hills with great views all around and a trampoline!! As well a table tennis table which is great for the evenings! We are about 5mins walk from the town which is a lovely little place nice cafes and shops! We are also about 4kms from some impressive waterfalls which we are going to explore soon. The only downside is we are to far from a beach to go and take advantage of the weather! When we arrived here we expolred the town and everything in walking distance and the next day we walked up a hill then down a hill and arrived at NZ oldest stone and wooden house at the bottom of the river which was very picturesque! We spent the afternoon down there as well. Today was an exciting one as we took a 3km walk to the local chocolate factory, mainly for the samples but it was really cool to see how they made everything! A bit to pricey to buy though! Still have plenty more to do here, lots of walks and exploring.

Rain rain rain!

Even coming half way around the world, you still can't get away from the rain. It poured down yesterday so we spent some time at the hostel planning our next stop off which will be Kerikeri, just further up the coast. It is our last day here in Paihia and today the weather is much better, we have sunshine, so we took the short journey by boat across the bay to Russell, the first settlement of New Zealand. It was really lovely there, very quiet and had many interesting buildings and picturesque viewing points. We're glad we were able to exlore it as many people had said it was worth a visit. Which it defo was. Tomorrow we are catching a local bus up to Kerikeri and looking forward to more adventures further north. We are expecting it to be slightly busier than our last few stops and we have many more interesting trips planned (including visiting a chocolate factory!) for our four days there, although as we have discovered plans change easily when you travel and we could be there longer.

Next stop...

Once we were up and out of our hostel we spent the morning on the decking in the sun and on the beach just waiting for our magic bus to pass back thorugh and to hop on! Once it arrived, Mr Bean still driving we made a short trip across from the east coast to the west to an area called the Bay of Islands and a town called Pahia. Just outside this town we made a short stop at some lovely waterfalls called Haruru Falls which we are going back to explore some more during our stay at Pahia. We made it to Pahia in a couple of hours and again it seemed like a lovely little beach town set around two small bays. There will be more to explore and see here as it turns out this is the sport where the enitre nation was created with the signing of the treaty! After we settled into our nice hostel called the MouseTrap we started to plan what we were going to do in the area. Friday the 17th was our first full day in the area and we decided to take a bit of a hike out to Waitangi Forest which was a long but worthwhile trip, gave us some stunning views of the huge forest land and the views back to Pahia. This walk took up most of our day and the early evening has been spent updating this for all you lovely people!!

Keep your emails and comments coming!!

xxx

Our First Stop

Our last day in Auckland had to be an early night as we had to catch our "magic" Bus tour North at 7.30am! Which we did, outside a huge hotel in the city we waited for our bus to come along and to our relief it did with a driver that looked stangely familar, to us and most others it appeared our bus was being driven by Mr Bean, but infact it was a Kiwi called Colin who all through our 4 hour journey to our stop was giving us comentary and telling jokes, it seemed the bus ticket was definatly money well spent! Our first significant stop was at Waipoua Forest where we were sent by colin down a short track deep into the forest and told too look out for "Tane Mahuta" or in English "God of the forest" we werent all that sure what to expect but when we got to our viewing spot the view was unbelievable, we were looking at a native tree (I know not that exciting) but the size of this thing was un real, it was triple the size of all other trees around and it was a Kauri tree which apparently has shaped local mythology for hundreds of years, cant wait for you all to see the pictures! After a short trip to the tree and a stop off for local ice cream - "Hokey Pokey" (which is vanilla ice cream with huge lumps of toffee in it!) we were back on the road and soon at our destination. As I said Laura and I were the only ones to get off at this stop and I can garuntee the rest of the bus were kicking them selves they hadnt, it was complete paradise. It's a small town called Opononi which was made famous in NZ in the 50's when a female dolphin made her home in the bay alone (unusual for dolphins to be alone) and it became very tame and aloud children to ride on her back and performed tricks for the locals. Unfortunatly dead now the storys still are strong in the area! Anyway we found our hostel set just back off the beach up a hill which was ideal as it gave us perfect views of the bay at sunset and they really are the most amazing views and although a very quiet place it seems just the perfect place to live, so relaxing and peaceful!PICTURES OF OPONONI WILL BE ON HERE ASAP TRUST ME!!

The next day in Opononi we headed down to the small jettie to catch a 5min boat ride across to the golden sands of the local beach and as we hopped off the boat we were given boogie boards which we used to sand surf down the giant sand dunes and end up in the sky blue sea, it was an amazing exprience which we both loved and we could have done all day! After we had spent about 2 hours sand surfing we just lay on the beach and admired the scenary of Opononi! Once we caught the boat back we spent the afternoon relaxing on the decking of our hostel in the sun and walked down the the little beach for a bit of an explore! We really didnt want to leave this perfect, virtually untouched bit of paradise, such an amazing place it just made us excited for what was to come! When we were set for dinner the next couple to move into the hostel came in, only from bleeding Romford!! So funny to hear about their travels and how different they think it is from home, just like we do!!

We are on the move!

Well folks we have explored much of Auckland now, what a beautiful city!
we now have an open bus ticket which will take us up the Northlands (the little arm that sticks out the top of NZ) up the untouched west coast then across to the Bay of Islands on the East and then back to Auckland! it al looks and sounds spectacular so when we get to Aus in 3 weeks ill stick some pictures on here!

keep the comments and emails coming

Much love

Baz and Laura

xxxx

we made it!!

well it was an eventful journey but we made it!! we had everything, some great movies and games, some terrifying terbulance, delays and bags that couldnt be taken off the plane!!

so we were delayed in Bangkok because of an electrical fault on the plane, and we had to catch a later connection to aukland from sydney which resulted in our bags being kept on the plane due to high winds! but 7 hours later than planned we arrived in the centre of Aukland at our hostel!

after sleeping the night we have been exploring the city itself. It has a beautiful new harbour which we have been walking around with lovely new apartments and restaurants. the rest of the city that we have seen so far is mainly offices and shopping (much to lauras ewxcitement) but tomorrow (sat) we are going to explore the opposite direction which has a few big parks and a slightly less built up area! we love it here already the city is spotless from rubbish, it is no where near as busy as you would expect a city to be and there are hardly anyu smokers!! the only downisde is not being able to spend much money!

we have our hostel booked for another two nights and whilst here we are investigatoing transport links to the north of the island to an area called the bay of Islands where we are going to hopefully work our way up to and beach it up for a while!!that should provide some amazing pictures and plenty of info for this website!

oo oo also aukland has a huge needle tower which we are planning to go up (kind of like the london eye, just a tower instead)hopefully that will give us some amazing unforgettable views and plkenty of snaps!!

anyway ill leave it there for the time being, we have only been here one day but NZ seems to be all they say it is and more, beautiful place, just cant wait to see some more!up[ date soonlove barry and Lauraxxxxxx

Nearly time to go!

hi everyone its the sunday night before we go just setting this little beauty up for when we are away!

hope it works so everyone can see what we are up to, bit nervous now well excited though!

off to Aukland first for three weeks then heading to Melbourne for xmas with family, then up the coast it is until we run out of KMs on our bus ticket (oh and maybe a little bit of casual work in between!)

Going to miss you all lots but we shall be back before you know it!!

we will always be in touch!!

o and keep checking the website!!!!