New Zealand Stinks

Hey you guys!

James and I spent an unhealthy amount of time on the FREE INTERNET at our posh hostel in Auckland. We downloaded all of Adam & Joe since we've been away. It's simply ideal for the long bus trips.

So last Thursday (26 Nov) we hopped on a bus to stinky Rotorua (it's official name). It's the home of NZ's hot springs and sulphurous mud bubbles. We were warned by the guidebooks it is rather touristy. Damn tourists! We only saw about 7 to our knowledge. We stayed 2 nights in the Spa Lodge that had it's own little natural hot spa - embarrassing photos to follow. We slept in our first bunkbeds. Exciting!

Friday - took a walk around the local park to see mud and steam bursting forth from the ground. Was quite spectacular, and free. We were followed most of the way by an entire class of school children dressed in yellow. That evening we attended a Maori cultural and Hangi evening at Mitai nr Rainbow Springs, closely followed by a night walk through a kiwi sanctuary. Educational.

Next morning we took to the luge - 3 times. I feel uncultured to say I think I might have enjoyed it as much as the terrifying Maori dancing. 4pm on Saturday and we were on the bus to Napier. We decided to fly by the seat of our pants as with Rotorua, and just turn up without booking anywhere. More fool us. All the backpacking hostels were completely full - so we ended up in the rather salubrious Masonic Hotel. Was great to have fluffy towels and yer own loo.

Yesterday we went on an afternoon wine tasting tour with Hamish from Prinsy's . He was a great chap, really friendly and took the 2 of us on our own private tour round 4 wineries and up a mountain. We bought a bottle at each place we stopped and miraculously got them into our tiny backpacks. Where there's a will...

Early this morning we boarded another nakedbus and we are now in Wellington - home of the Conchords. We haven't done much yet. It's a bit drizzley but we've 3 days to explore.

Blog soon...
xxx

So Long Cook Islands...

We are back in New Zealand. This morning (or more accurately - yesterday morning) we left Rarotonga after a long couple of weeks in the South Pacific. Updates from there were few and far between due to the extortionate price of internet access out there. That and the fact that the access is pinged off satellites and is horribly slow meant that it wasn't worth doing anthing but the basics. How times have changed, I am currently sitting in front of a free interent terminal in a lovely little hostel called Freemans Lodge in Ponsonby, Auckland. And making the most of it too!

Both Rarotonga and Aitutaki were wonderful, some of the friendliest people you could ever find (my favourites being the old man who offered us a lift in Rarotona and Veia, our hostess at Inano on Aitutaki - she was crazy as a coconut!). There wasn't much to do but sit on the beach and read which might explain how I read 4 books in just under two weeks and on our final day (at Muri Beach on Raro) we managed to find a posh resort complex with pool which anyone could use as long as they bought just one can of coke and officially become a customer. We found this out after ordering a big lunch.

Our flight back was for some stupid reason at 3:40am, and with everything closing at approx 9pm it meant we ended up sitting in the airport for 6 hours counting down the clock. Add to that the fact that the light came back crossing the International date line and it means that after I good nights sleep on Sunday evening, is not Wednesday night and I still haven't had a proper sleep (just a little snooze earlier!)

Tonight we have been out and had really posh pizza and tomorrow we head off to Rotarua as our conquest of New Zealand begins, leaving Auckland far behind. We've also managed to get some photos uploaded as well. Have look a look at more on Flickr. (www.flickr.com/jamespeebles)

Blog soon....

Sick of Sausages in Paradise

I seriously never want to see another sausage.

Our economy drive while staying in the salubrious Aitutaki Inano beach resort meant we had to eat most of our meals in the cavernous cabin - hence the purchase of a jumbo bag of sausages.

The accommodation was lovely but James and I had 5 days of not anyone around but the proprietor, Veia. We were out by the airport and it's a long hot walk into town. You get told not to even attempt it. So after the end of the 5 days we started to get a bit of cabin fever.

Yesterday that all changed. We went on a cruise of the lagoon with our new next door neighbours. Snorkelling in the coral reefs and reading under palm trees. Then last night our new neighbours, Veia and us went to an island night with an enourmous buffet of traditional south pacific food and dancing. The island girls were amazing to watch. James had a go but I missed it all cos I was on the lav!

Today is our first day staying at Matriki. It's a complex of 3 cabins - we have the garden hut. It's small, friendly, rather bohemian with hammocks, and much cheaper than our previous accommodation. Right up our street.

Signing off now. Running out of time. Ta ra...
xxx

As Far Away As We Will Be

A quick one, we have 7 minutes...

We are on the Cook islands - Its very remote and as a result the internet is expensive and very slow. Chances are we won't get to blog here again.

Its extremely hot here on Aitutaki, there nothing to do but go on boat trips, go sea kayaking and watch hermit crabs on the beach.

We have no moped licence so traveling is a bit difficult but we'll get by!! plus we are saving a lot of money in vehicle rental and our hostess was happy to give us a lift into "town" earlier for some supplies (sausages).

Blog soon.

Good Here

We found out that Paihia mean 'good here' and it really rather is.

The guide book said it's just a tourist trap of restaurants and places to stay but we love it. Probably because it's not quite the summer yet here.

We had a bit of history and culture yesterday when we visted Waitangi - the birthplace of NZ.

We did a boat trip on Saturday, dolphin watching and snorkelling, and have just stayed 2 nights in a lovely self contained cabin overlooking the bay. These are our treats to ourselves for Christmas - rather early. Back to staying in hostels tonight.

Heading back to Auckland tomorrow to catch a flight to Rarotonga (Cook Islands) in the evening. Rather exciting!

I dropped my mobile down the toilet on Friday night. (Doh!) I have never done that before. It's completely dead and we can't test the sim cos James' phone is locked to other networks. Hopefully we can sort something out in Auckland tomorrow. I'll keep you posted. You can still contact us at our email addresses which we try to check a couple of times a week.

Blog soon
x

Up to The Bay Of Islands

After one day in Auckland we had pretty much seen it all, well, as much as you can when its absolutely chucking it down with rain. Its not exactly the biggest of places and we ended up holding out in a Starbucks waiting for our bus to arrive.

We booked a bus to Paihia (Pie Here?), in The Northland, a 3 and a half hour bus journey north. The further north we got, the better the weather got although it was still overcast and gloomy. We have booked into a hostel called the Pickled Parrot which is really nice and there is a real life parrot called Rocky who has the run of the place - he has been sitting on my shoulder this morning!

Marie has managed to upload her pictures (follow the link to the right) and here you can see him on me! She has also lost her Twilight book (left it on the bus!) and is now unbearable to live with.

We plan to go whale and dolphin spotting tomorrow on a big boat -"Whales and dolphins, whales and dolphins - yeah!"

The weather has also distinctly improved- lovely!

blog soon, by-ee

I watched Julie & Julia on the plane!

I loved it! James watched all sorts of boys films.

Anyhoo we went up a hill (Mt Eden - actually a volcano) earlier, walked into Auckland town and now are in an internet cafe sorting out our gubbins.

We were both delirious with lack of sleep yesterday but were determined to stay awake until at least 9pm. We managed it by washing our stinky clothes and going for a curry.

We're heading out to the Bay of Islands tomorrow in the north. It's supposed to be brootiful.

We'll let you know. Toodle oo
x

PS I did my first book swap today. My Full Hearts and Empty Bellies for Twilight - to see what all the fuss is about.

Moving On Already

It seems like the blink of an eye but already we've left Hong Kong far behind and have now arrived in Auckland, New Zealand - its a strange mixture of sadness at leaving one part of the trip behind but excitement of those still to come. We landed at lunchtime today although really it felt like the middle of the night so once making our way to Mount Eden where our first accommodation is booked we definately needed a sleep. So it was great to see that the office was "closed for lunch" until 4 o'clock so instead of a lovely snooze we had to go out and find some grub. Oh well, worse things can happen, and I did get to eat the biggest sausage roll in the world!!

A friendly immigration lady and then a friendly bus driver gives us the impression that things will be okay. We've now had that snooze but are definately a bit sleep-deprived (Marie is wearing all her clean clothes at once!) and are now taking advantage of the reasonably priced internet and laundry facilities. It doesn't look like I'll be able to upload any photos from here but hopefully they'll be up soon (there are plenty of Honkers and Cheung Chau to keep you busy!) but at least we have access to the internet unlike in Cheung Chau - hence the lack of updates already!!!! More soon.....