The Bay of Islands 13th - 17th April

As it's name suggests this is a bay with many islands in it. The only way to really see it is by boat and that's exactly what we did. We spent the Easter Weekend on this 72 foot yacht. There were 10 passengers, 2 crew and Moby the dog. There was no wind on our 1st day so we motored up to the Cavalli Islands (which is where the wreck of the Rainbow Warrior is), anchored in a cove and went snorkelling and kayaking. We caught and ate lots of tuna and mussels. Did a couple of walks on some of the islands themselves. There was also lots of wildlife, seals, gannets and even more dolphins - but these were bottle nose and up to 4 meters long!

Perhaps the most useful and intelligent crew member on board the boat was Moby, the dog. Not only would his high pitch whining attract the attention of dolphins but he would start barking whenever there was a fish on one of the lines we were trawling behind the boat. It meant nobody had to do any "fishing" as such. Just drop the line in and leave the rod. Sure as eggs is eggs Moby would start barking when you caught a tuna. Very useful. Once the fish was safely on board Moby was only happy once he'd given it a lick in the face. Then we'd slit it's throat and gut it before sticking it in the pan for dinner. There were some interesting people on board. That's a photo of Sally. She came kayaking with us out into the pacific ocean and went exploring inside these huge sea caves. She's 72.

Poor Knight Islands 11th-13th April

The Poor Knight Islands are a land and marine reserve 20 km out into the Pacific Ocean from the east coast. They are reputedly one of the top ten dive sites in the world. What makes it special is the warm current that comes from East Australia (the EAC as the turtles call it in Finding Nemo). It means you see tropical fish in really cold water. Supposedly it's the only place in the world (apart from the Galapagos) you can see turtles and fur seals at the same time.

Do we look fat dressed in black ? This place is awesome. We went diving through Blue Mao Mao arch - the best dive I think I have ever done. We've got underwater photos of it - but we didn't take them. They're from a screen saver which we bought in a shop afterwards. Jacques Cousteau labelled this place one of the top ten dive sites in the world and when you're underwater you can see why. You swim through this incredible underwater landscape. The highlight is going through this 40 metre long arch. It gets dark as you go in but the sunlight from the entrance and the exit provide sufficient light so you can see everything that's going on. On our second dive we saw a sting ray as big as the gravel circle in our back garden. At least it looked that big through the water. This is one place we have to come back to.

Auckland

8th - 10th April

We finally arrived in Auckland, the City of Sails. We spent a couple of days with my Mum's cousin Eileen and her family. They took us on a great tour of the city, it really is the city of sails, there are boats everywhere. Fortunately, Angelo (Eileen's husband) is a yacht designer and he could answer any questions and also showed us some of his own designs floating around in the harbour - inculding the shuttle ferries.



The city is also littered with volcanoes. 48 to be precise. Luckily most are inactive. This photo is taken at the top of a volcanoe looking into the crater. You can just make out the Auckland city skyline in the background and some kids sledging down the crater on plastic bags.

Raglan 5th - 8th April

Surf's up dude! We've just arrived at NZ's surf central - a place called Raglan. What's more the backpackers we're staying in is surf central's, central ! The place is full of pro's from all round the world. There's a lot of kit + clothing being flashed around and you suspect some of them are being sponsored. Israelis, Japanese, Swedes, Dutch, German, Yanks .. they're all here. Some of them haven't been anywhere else for weeks. All they do is eat, breath, talk, sniff and poo surfing. The rest of their lives are in limbo. You can see how easy it would be to fall into this kind of lifestyle. Very easy going. Most of the time everyone sits around looking at the weather - waiting for the perfect wave. Only about two hours a day is actually spent surfing. You're so knackered after that it takes the next 24 hours to recover. Despite looking really hard - it's not that difficult to get started .. we were both standing up after our first lesson. Admittedly the waves were tiddlers - but all the same the snaps make us look quite cool. The next day we rented our own boards - mainly so we could stick them on the roof of the car for photos. There are definitely going to be a few trips to Newquay when we get back - so much fun especially when you get hold of a slightly bigger wave than ones you're used to.

The Coromandel Peninsula 1st - 5th April

You know that advert on TV for Australia, the one which ends with the bikini clad girl saying "where the bloody hell are you?". Well this part of NZ have started their own ad campaign in response ... "We're bloody well on the Coromandel"... and so we are. There's not much to say about these few days, except we walked, flew kites, snorkelled and ran about on many beautiful beaches. One of the beaches was inside a cave which we had to swim out to. There was also a Department of Conservation trail for snorkelling!




Beach Bums




"Son of a beach!"









Cathedral Cove

The East Cape 28th - 31st March

We stayed in this awesome backpackers on the East Cape, run by a Maori family. Their house as you can see really is right by the sea .. and it's got a touch of the "Swiss Family Robinson" about it. You can just make out our car by the side of the boat trailer. Our room is the one that looks like the front door. We were closest to the sea. There was a big swell the first night and we were worried we'd find ourselves floating in the middle of the night.




The owner, Pehi, takes us deep sea fishing the next day in his boat which is launched into the Pacific Ocean from his drive. None of us on board have been fishing before. Within 1/2 hour Caity has caught six fish - two of them are whoppers. The rest of us are still struggling to get a nibble. Eventually most of us get rid of the rods and just throw a line about a metre into the water to catch these fish called blue mao mao. There are hundreds of them down there and within minutes everybody is yanking them on board. We catch far more than we can eat but the ocean is to Pehi what Morrisons is to us. What we don't cook that night either get's sent to his family or goes in his freezer.










There's a beautiful sunset that night. Everybody in the backpackers has got fresh fish to eat. Even the ones who didn't come fishing. Happy days.








Marahaeko to Opotiki 90 km.
I managed to get Caity to ride 72 km in one day ! How about that. And she didn't moan the whole way. Just a bit near the end .. that last 15 km or so. 72km is 45 miles by the way. It's quite some distance. First time I've been that far too and I have to say I was starting to hurt as well. The worst of it was a 5 km hill - winding it's way up the side of this cliff face. I lied to Caity every time we came to another S bend in the road - telling her we were near the top. She only started pushing her bike about 2/3rds of the way up. I cycled the rest and nearly put myself back in the cardiology ward. (A joke by the way. I was fine. I just felt very knackered.) Our Lonely Planet Cycle New Zealand book reckons the East Cape is the best coastal cycle ride in the world. I've not done any of the others it suggests so it's impossible to compare. However, like everywhere else, and it's getting boring saying so, it was quite spectacular. We're going to try and find some real dump next - take some photos and plaster them over the blog.

Tongariro Northern Circuit 21st - 23rd March

The Tongariro National Park was the 1st park in NZ. It was given to the people by the local Maroi tribe for safe keeping due to it's spiritual importance. There are 3 large volcanoes and we walked up and around them for 3 days. This Great Walk is meant to have the best views in NZ. Unfortunately it rained for 3 days so no great views, but lots of atmosphere.




It's question time. The landscape here was recently used as the location for a blockbuster movie. What was the name of the movie and who is Caity pretending to be ? First correct answer gets a free magnum of champagne with their meal at Dr Bevan's 30th birthday in Sydney.




I've had a really short hair cut. The shortest it's been since I was born. We bought some clippers for 20 NZ$ and Caity cut almost all of my hair off. Down to a grade #4 which is half an inch long. This is the first photo of me ... looking like a convict. These are the Emerald Lakes by the way. They're near the top of Mt Ngauruahoe (NARA-HOE-EE). The clouds you can see in the background are actually plumes of steam coming out of the ground.


We were meant to walk for 4 days, but because the weather was so miserable we did it in 3. We bought a postcard of what the views were meant to look like. Thankfully at the end of the walk there was a really posh hotel with an underground pool and sauna for us to relax in.

Whanganui River 15-18th March

Canoeing
This is the only "Great Walk" which isn't a walk but a trip down the river by canoe. We did 123km in 4 days in a canadian canoe, with NO guide. The man who dropped us off at the start asked us if we had any experience... "not much" we replied... "no problems, go and do a spin around that rock and then we can go and look at the 1st rapid around the corner" !!!!!!! Apart from a few tips and telling us that the big 3 rapids are on the last day, we had no other instructions.



Nik's in the back steering and I'm up front trying to "read the water". We don't see another person for the next 36hrs as there is no one in the campsite. On the 2nd day we enter the National Park which is mainly a gorge. It's beautiful, very green and lots of ducks. There are tree grave yards all along the edge in the mud. When we arrive at the hut for our 2nd night, there's a warden there but no one else. At dusk the warden shows us the long tailed bats, which are one of NZ's 2 native mammals - the other being the short tailed bat.

Our 3rd day is quite short, but we stop off to do a walk to the Bridge to Nowhere. It was built after the 1st WW for settlers up the valley, but they all left in the 50's and now the bush has taken over. On our last night we stay in a hut which is on a marae (Maori tribal meeting house). Unfortunately there's no one here at the moment, so we don't get to eat with the locals.

Our last day arrives and the biggest rapids!


Just when we thought we were getting the hang of things - that we could handle the big ones - we came up against a monster of a rapid. From where I was sitting it seemed to tower over Caity's head - but by then it was too late to do anything about it. Within a couple of seconds we'd "turtled." It all happened in slow motion. From where I was sitting it looked as if Caity jumped over board before we actually capsized. If there wasn't an inevitability about it - I could have sworn as Caity abandoned ship she actually capsized us. She's giving me death stares as I write this. Anyway so there we were floating downstream, miles from anywhere. Just us, the dead trees on the river bank and the river itself. It was actually quite comfy drifting downstream in the water hanging onto the canoe. For a few moments it didn't actually occur to me that we'd have to make some kind of rescue effort. Fortunately a jet boat came along about a minute later with a boat load of people on boat. This British woman leans over the side and says " have you been drifting like that for long ? " I'm tempted to say three days. But the captain of the boat beats me to it.