Before our release(!) we go on the prison tour, which is quite informative, amusing and gruesome by turn. Wave goodbye to the other backpackers and start out back on the long road to comfort. Have an uneventful 4 hour drive down to Martinborough. We stop halfway for lunch at a very rural retreat – 1970’s [...]
Left today for Napier – a couple of hours drive away. I’m driving – usual hair-raising windey roads through beautiful countryside but then hit a traffic jam – am slowed down by a house! Yes – really! Someone is moving their house on a wide trailer. There is car traveling behind him with a sign [...]
Had another lovely day! Went riding all morning at Harakeke which is a 3,000 acre farm owned by Karen Niederer (who was a member of the 1996 NZ Olympic 3 day eventing team). Took some persuasion because they don’t really take public bookings any longer, but between us and our motel owner we eventually managed. [...]
Drive to Lake Taupo. Decide to trust Ursula’s sat nav (despite it taking us off the main highway) and drive onto smaller and smaller roads and then eventually turn onto a dirt track. The Toyota skids precariously. Where the hell are we? Feel like those idiots I normally laugh at who drive across fields and [...]
Awoken early by the departure of our neighbours (but double check they've actually gone). Take a drive into town and have a stroll around the lake and look at the local market. Rotorua is famous for bungy jumping, jetboating, that rolling down a hill in a big ball thing (can't remember what it's called) and [...]
Lie in late and then drive down in a leisurely fashion to Rotorua - about 2 hours away. Check in to the Silver Fern motel - www.silverfernmotorinn.co.nz. Rotorua is famous for its hot springs and is slighty wiffy. Decide to take it easy and both have massages (plus a facial for me) at the motel [...]
We’ve had an AWESOME day! Took the trip out to White Island – which is NZ most active volcano. The boat trip is an hour and a half – the water is rough and both John & I get sick. The guide soothingly assures me that lots of people get nervous and sick before arriving [...]
Up earlier than usual but still get caught by our B&B host. They are fantastic people – but very talkative! Pack and get picked up at 10am by our car rental company. Make our way out first to Peter & Ursula’s shop & home to borrow their sat nav. Ursula’s Asian food importers is larger [...]
No specific plans today so stroll down to the ferry terminal and catch a ferry over to Devonport. Although Devonport appears to be an island it's actually part of the Northland mainland - about 10 minutes away by ferry. Devonport is gorgeous - a sort of beach version of Holt - full of pastel clapperboard [...]
We've seen it's snowing back home (he he he), but I'm afraid we only have one complaint about today and that is that the weather is just a little bit too hot!! I meant to say earlier that the first day we arrived and went to the beach I had tan marks after 2 hours [...]