A Weekend on the Farm

On friday we met with James's friend in Palmeston North and stopped over at his house that night with a portion of fish and chips and a game of rugby on the tv. Up bright and early the next morning we set off up to his dad's farm, which is near Wanganui (we think). Unfortunately it rained all day so we stayed in watched a film and got well fed with homemade soup, sandwiches and big roast dinner for tea along with plenty of wine and beer.

Thankfully on Sunday morning the weather was much better and we went off on the quad bike for a trip around the 8000acres of farm! Seen as hunting is encouraged in NZ we took a gun with us. Obviously me and James have never shot anything before so we had a practice on a tree, I missed by a mile but James was pretty accurate. He used this new found skill to kill a goat, a bird and a rabbit. All considered pests on the farm. After a couple of goes on the quad bike each we went back to 'Palmy' and spent another night there.

Set off monday morning to Wellington, NZ's capital. Weather is pretty cold down here. Going into the city tomorrow morning.

Hawke's Bay

Our next stop was Hawke's Bay, which is on the east coast and is full of wineries! First place we visited was Napier which calls itself the art deco capital of the world (pic), due to the town being crushed in an earthquake and pretty much totally rebuilt in the 1930's.

We went on a tour of Napier Prison (Robyn's idea) which only closed down in 1993. It was pretty interesting and a little bit creepy, seeing things like the hanging yard and death row (and a cat with a moustache called Basil).

Day after that we went to a winery (again Robyn's plans) and did a little bit of tasting followed by a hefty purchase of what I'm told is very nice wine. I also bought some beer that day, but this is far less interesting. We also tried to have a run on the beach again, but as it was a pebbled beach we nearly sank and looked like Phoebe from Friends running along, not much fun.

20km down the road was Hastings, where we stayed at a rival brand holiday park to where we normally stay, and it was alright. Not much to do in Hastings 'city centre' which was about as big as Otley - not as big as the H-U-D Tony ;)

Tomorrow we're catching up with a rugby mate of mine and staying at his parents farm, therefore we'll be riding pigs and chasing sheep or whatever they do out in the sticks!

First Week in the Campervan

Next stop was Waihi Beach. It was about 2 hours drive from Whitianga, but was well worth it when we got there and saw the beach! The beach itself was a 9km stretch of white sandy heaven, and hardly anyone else was on it. We spent most of the day basking in the glorious sunshine and dipping our toes in the Pacific Ocean (a first for both of us). Shorts and t-shirts weather all the way (sorry to rub it in)! After lunch we walked into the ‘town’ of Waihi Beach, had a mooch around some shops, and bought another magnum.
We stayed at Sea Air Motel and Holiday Park, which was everything we needed; showers, toilets, kitchen etc…

From Waihi Beach we drove for about an hour to Tauranga, the biggest town we’ve been to so far. Had another wander round some shops and got a brew, had to wait an age for them but we were compensated with some free drinks vouchers (and therefore will never complain about the service)!
About 7km from Tauranga is Mt Mangnanui where we are stopping the night. The centre has a few cool shops and cafes, and round the corner from the holiday park is a White Rose-style shopping centre, where we bought fish and chips. Post-feed we had another walk on the beach, this one is possibly even bigger than Waihi Beach, and even nicer. Life is good!

After another early morning run on the beach we drove for about an hour to Roturua, on the banks of the lake of the same name. Town is pretty much like everywhere else we’ve been, and first stop was Starbucks, to use the vouchers we got yesterday! Two of the biggest hot chocolates ever, coming right up. Camp site is great, free hot thermal mineral pools they were amazing! Basically what Rotorua is all about, thermal pools and bubbling mud all over the place.

From Rotorua we drove to Taupo, but took a detour to Huka Prawn Park, the worlds only thermally heated prawn farm. We spent the morning filling our heads with knowledge about prawns, feeding baby prawns, feeding trout and then fishing for our own prawns. We caught 5 whoppers (James caught 4 of them) and had them cooked up for our lunch, from bucket to plate in around 5mins, delicious. Found the campsite, paid for 2 nights and got a 3rd free, nothing like a freebie to put a smile on a backpackers face! Usual facilities, no spa like pools like the Rotorua site never mind though! Going to a market Saturday morning and then for an explore around the town centre.

Yellow Lava

On Saturday we picked up our super cool Escape campervan, called yellow lava, but please leave a name suggestion in the comment section at the bottom each blog (winner announced next week…). Conversation with the woman at Escape went something like this: don’t chip the windscreen or we will charge you, don’t crash or we will charge you, don’t die or we will charge you. Drove off sufficiently terrified. James of course, successfully manoeuvred this automatic giant all the way to Thames.

Arrived in Thames and bought some necessities, beer, wine (food). Found the campsite, it was a case of pick your own site because not many people camp in the middle of autumn you must be mad! Set off on a bush walk that took so long it was almost time for tea when we get back (big, fat sausages for tea, delicious).

Got up early doors Sunday morning and went for a run along the beach. Drove around 50km along a coastal road to Coromandel. Coromandel town was just a street with a couple of shops, cafes and a bank so after taking in the views of the surrounding areas we hopped back in the van and headed across to Whitianga. The roads leading up to it were about as windy as they get and very high up in the hills, all making for a very picturesque (if not narrow and slightly scary) ride. Whitianga is a lot like Coromandel (i.e. small), realised that what NZ call towns are actually more like what we would call villages, nevertheless had a walk on the beach and another magnum - good times!

Campervan Tomorrow!

Yesterday we went on a big walk to Cox's Bay Reserve. We came accross it by accident, the path is next to the 'Countdown' supermarket we've been to a few times. The supermarket actually sells Woolworths brand stuff, which is odd seeing as they went bust last year!

Cox's Bay Reserve is one of the nicest places we've seen since we've been here, the weather is still lovely, shame to hear its so bad at home! We saw a funny little pug dog, and now Robyn wants one....for some reason.


Had some good feeds yesterday, started with a big fat Magnum (because it was so hot, although the locals looked at us like we were mad - it is autum here) followed by a bbq chicken pizza while watching Jurassic Park in HD. Not bad.

We're picking up our campervan tomorrow from these guys . We're both very excited, and can't wait to see more of the country. Not sure when we'll get on the web while we're in the van, but we'll put up a post whenever we can.

Ponsonby

After Auckland city centre we’ve moved on to one of its trendiest suburbs, Ponsonby. Ponsonby is about 15 minutes out of town on the bus, and the main street, imaginatively named Ponsonby Road, is lined with supper cool cafes, restaurants where you can eat outside even if its freezing, and bars which look like you need a fistful of cash to get in. Needless to say, on our frugal Yorkshire traveller budget, we’ve avoided the aforementioned establishments and found the café which serves the best pot of tea/black coffee combo.
Not that much to do around here really except chill out, which we’ve become very good at. There’s a couple of parks to wander in, and on one day we went on a massive walk to find a big fruit shop we spied earlier in the week.

Today we got a ferry from downtown Auckland across the water to a lovely little place called Devenport. Robyn was very excited, as it was her first trip on a ferry…ever! She liked it. When we got to Devenport we had a big walk up a big hill which used to be a volcano, and saw some tool trying to do some hand gliding (if that’s how you say/spell it). We politely asked if we could watch and take pictures, and then stood for at least 15 minutes while he stood still holding his parachute up in the wind, and eventually it just fell down, so we left him to it. Have a look at the picture, its probably as exciting to look at as a picture as it was stood there in real life.

On a brighter note, we’ve arranged our first Help Exchange, at a beef farm north of Auckland. Should be a massive change from anything we’ll have done on this trip so far, so we’re both looking forward to it!

Campervan time on Saturday!!! Look out drivers on the North Island!

More in Auckland......

Day two in Auckland Woke up pretty early, had some breakfast and got a phone call from home. Very nice to speak to everyone! Except they seem to have forgotten that there is a time difference and asked what we had been doing today - well mum so far I’ve had a shower and a slice of toast, its been good.

Set off to find Auckland’s museum, had a general idea of what direction it was in and got there in fairly roundabout way. Conveniently passed a post office though so we gave in some forms and picked up some stamps. Filled our heads with lots of profound brain knowledge in the museum and had a walk round the grounds. Again another gorgeous sunny day!

Tony - Check out the video, its just for you.

Its WRC New Zealand this week, and guess what we saw....lots of real life Dirt 2 stuff!! It was like watching me and you play online, loads of screeching tires, and I even think I spotted that Belgian guy who rammed us off that time ; )

Ben - The Chinese entrant is called 'Dong'....... lol i know, Dong! Email me your email address too, or else.

Helen - I know you laughed at Dong too, I thought better of you, you're a grown up.

First day in Auckland

City Lodge

Our first hostel is about as basic as it comes, just a bed, shower, toilet and sink. But with the added bonus of fridge, kettle and a TV. A TV that bizarrely seems to document the UK election more than anything else that is happening in the world.

The first day we took ourselves off for a coffee and then for a wander into Auckland. Too tired to form an opinion about anything we had an early night and slept a good 12 hours!

Our first full day in Auckland

We woke up feeling 100% better than yesterday! After a quick breakfast we headed into town. The weather is lovely but its very strange that its so warm and yet the leaves are falling off the trees. We had a meeting at the bank at 11am and picked up our bank cards so we can now access money (bonus), and then found the place where we pick up our campervan and arranged a time for collection. We spent $5 on a sim card from a company called 2degrees (no never heard of them either), who don’t seem to have their own shop but operate solely out of tiny newsagents. Nevertheless calling and texting is now very cheap.

Grabbed a quick lunch and walked through a park to Auckland’s art gallery, only to discover its still charging full price despite half the gallery being closed for renovations - next time maybe. Instead we took a trip up the highest manmade structure in New Zealand, the sky tower. We took a lift up 186m and saw some amazing views, watched a woman jump from the top of tower, being suspended for a minute while she had her picture taken, then plummet to the ground, and we met a man from Baildon. It is most definitely a small world, we travel a million miles to a completely different country, stay in its most populated city and meet a man who lived a mile down the road from home. Unbelievable. He did however mention that he now lives in NZ and passed on his number in case we were ever in his area. After taking another trip up to the highest point (220m) we saw some even better views of the city, got a cold drink, and went all the way back down. All in all a good sight to see.

A very pleasant evening, quick tea and then went out to find a nice bar to have some local booze. Window shopped a few, bypassing them when realising that $9 for a glass of wine was equal to £4.50! Might be on the other side of the world but we’re still from Yorkshire, and therefore tight with money. In the end though we found a great bar where all drinks were $5 during happy hour (yay!) and sat on their balcony people watching.

Getting to NZ

Saying Our Goodbyes

Saying goodbye to everyone was really hard, we all cried lots! After we checked in James and I realised we had spent a lot of time planning our trip and being excited and not enough time preparing ourselves for all the tears!

Manchester to Dubai

After we checked in our luggage (both bags weighing a whopping 10kg each!), we went for a browse around duty free. There were only a few flights going out of the airport so shopping was very quiet. James treated us both to some new perfume/aftershave and then we ate at the Soho coffee bar, well recommended by Ros and Phil - thank you! We boarded the plane, a Boeing 777, and couldn’t believe how big it was! I exclaimed to James that the propellers on the plane were huge - although I’m well aware the planes do not have propellers they have engines, James hasn’t stopped laughing. since When we were seated the staff brought round hot towels, then drinks, then lots of food, which was quite nice as far as plane food goes. If we hadn’t of walked through business class we would have thought we had it good, however, business class looked amazing, and our cattle carriage was rubbish by comparison.

Dubai to Melbourne

We landed at Dubai airport in a terminal dedicated to Emirates flights, the Terminal was lovely, a huge waterfall, fish pond and lots more duty free shops. After a coffee and a croissant we boarded the plane to Melbourne, an airbus (with two propellers), which was even bigger than the Boeing, but frustratingly had less leg room. On the plus side there were only two seats on the aisles so we didn’t have to sit next to anyone. Again staff came round with hot towels, drinks and lots of food. Whilst I spent most of the flight sleeping uncomfortable, James made his way through the extensive film library on the in flight entertainment.

Melbourne to Auckland

The last leg of the journey was the hardest, we were both tired, our legs were sore, and I was sick. But then I slept the rest of the way and woke up as we were descending to Auckland. We finally landed at 12.45pm, after eating five plane meals, consuming endless amounts of free drinks, watching 6 films and about 10 TV programmes between us, our 28 hour flight was (thank God) over. Tired, sore but excited we went to collect our bags. After a minor panic that they weren’t on the plane the finally came crawling out of the carrousel. We were given our visa, without having to show any proof we had bought a visa, any evidence of funds, or that we could get ourselves back home if we needed to. A very trusting nation! Off we went to catch the bus into Auckland.