northland 2

Well, I know there were LOADS of photos in the 'northland 1' post but decided I really wanted to share the ducks with you, not to mention the amazing series that Chris took of Ash jumping into my arms (he didn't capture the one of me dropping him though).

northland

They haven't been on ANOTHER holiday surely? I hear you ask..... well... yes... just a little one this time.
We went up to the north of the north island, mainly because Chris has just moved to Auckland (www.nlnz.blogspot.com) and we wanted to check up on him. He's doing very well up there with a nice pad and looked after us well before we all headed over to Waiheke island, about 45mins on the ferry from Auckland. Waiheke is a very pleasant place where we went kayaking, swimming, played frisbee, ate pizza, and stayed in a very smelly and noisy hostel before heading back to the mainland. There we bid Chris goodbye while he went to play icehockey and we went to see Rue up in Orewa. The boys went snowboarding in an indoor snowy place while i sat in the bar and watched them with a glass of wine and a good book.
From Orewa we headed north: next stop - Sheep World! There we got to see sheepdogs at work, learnt how to shear a sheep and got to feed some animals and learn a bit about them. Did you know that Alpacas love cats and will follow them around? Or that they only have bottom teeth and so can't bite too hard? (Ash would dispute this last fact.... I kept a healthy distance, as you can see from the photo). Further up the coast is Goat Island marine reserve. We stayed in a lovely little campsite in a static caravan called Rosie with one of the best views ever, and hired out wetsuits to go snorkelling (yes, we told the campsite owner, yes, we are complete wooses and feel the cold). Despite the wetsuits the water was pretty chilly but we were rewarded for our efforts by seeing lots of coloured fishies (sorry, natural history is not my forte) and stingrays.
The following day we went horsetrekking along Pakiri beach, then up the coast to the Bay of Islands where Ash tried to teach me how to play squash. We're just about still talking. Then a tour of the Treaty House at Waitangi, where the treaty was signed between the European settlers and Maori.
After all that history and activity we were ready to relax with our books in a little hideaway hostel called the Tree House in Hokianga harbour on the West coast. This was a gorgeous place - little hostel cabins dotted throughout trees - see the photo of ours which was by a little brook where the ducks would come and splash around. Very relaxing.


From the Tree House we caught a wee ferry across the harbour and drove through Opononi, a coastal town famous for the time when a friendly dolphin ('Opo the friendly dolphin' - there's a song about it, I kid you not) came to play and stayed in the shallows there for a while. There are some striking sand dunes around there, plus blue seas, and we couldn't resist stopping and going for an impromptu swim.
Not much further down the coast we went through the kauri forests and saw the giant kauri tree (trunk girth 13metres or something similar - believe me - big tree), and then stopped off at the Kai Iwi lakes - fantastic clear freshwater lakes with white sand beach with a campground on the shores. No one else was there at all, so we went for a very peaceful paddle on some kayaks left there, and then, of course, another swim. That night we stayed in Balys Beach, a wee village near an incredibly long beach (see photos) in a lovely little hostel that we had to ourselves. Cosy evening on the sofa.


The following day brought more sunshine and a trip back to Auckland, broken by a stop in Waiwera, where Chris popped up to join us for a sandwich on the beach and a game of mini-golf, thus making our holiday complete. Also in Waiwera is a 'thermal wonderland', a cross between hot spas and Alton Towers.... kind of hideous really, but where there's warm water, there's Becs and Ash getting in it! The place had a number of spas of different sizes and temperatures and oh so many noisy kids... It also had a number of water slides and foolishly (why?why?why?) I thought it might be fun to go down one. 'C'mon Ash' i said, and he needed little encouragement as we headed up the long staircase to the longest one. We seemed to have been climbing a lot of stairs and we were really quite high up before it struck me that perhaps it might have been wise for an adrenaline-averse person such as myself to start off on one of the smaller slides. But Ash assured me it'd be fine, and who am I to argue? All I can say is that it was horribly fast and horribly bendy and horribly steep and went on for a horribly horribly long time. My adrenals still haven't recovered.

Back in Auckland, we stayed again at Chris' (thanks love) and went out in the evening to meet up with Rue again, and Ash's old flatmate from Bath, Katey and her bloke Mike who were out on holiday. Had a fun time until some rather shady characters seemed keen to show off a knife so we made a sharp exit. Felt kind of safe in the company of a policeman (Mike) and a martial arts expert (Ash). Not forgetting the rehab engineer of course Chris!


Photos are, from top:

1. Balys beach, near Dargaville (Daaaaahgaville)
2. Kai Iwi lakes
3. Hokianga Harbour
3. Opononi (Ash)
4. The tree house cabin
5. Ash looking rather special whilst horseriding on Pakiri beach
6. Alpaca at Sheep World
7. Goat Island
8. Waiheke island - the boys on the ferry
9. A walk on Waiheke
10. Kayaking around Waiheke ('NOW will Becs shut up about wanting to go kayaking?'!)
11. Becs and Chris about to eat lots of pizza

Queen Charlotte Track

The Queen Charlotte Track.... a blissful few days can be had tramping alongside the sounds away from any traffic... having your bags picked up every morning by water taxi and dropped off that afternoon at your accomodation... wonderful hostels.... azure waters.... the chance to kayak the calm waters.... soaking in a hot spa pool at the end of the day... sigh.

We shared part of the tramp with an English couple we met called Charlie and Rob (see photo) who stopped off in Wellington for the night a few weeks later on their way up north and shared with us good company and lovely chocolates!

down to dunedin

One weekend in March we went down to Dunedin to visit Jenny and Adrian who are friends from Edinburgh and had a very merry time. Lovely weather, stunning beaches and AMAZING food! Thanks guys.... we are still trying to work off all the bread and butter pudding and flapjacks and the like!
It was great to see Dunedin in nice weather, as previously when we had visited it had been shrouded in mist and rain. J&A were superb hosts and took us to many lovely places, a few of which are shown. Also we got to swim in an outdoor heated saltwater pool, watch the surfers, run down sand dunes, see Jen and Ade's footage of their epic cycling trips from Malta to Norway and in Japan... a lovely weekend catching up.

feb holiday 2 - coromandel, lake waikaremoana

From Raglan we headed east to stop off at a place called Te Aroha, which apparently means 'mountain of love' or lurrrrve, as Ash would say. This is a sweet little place in the shadow of said mountain which boasts lots of natural springs (doesn't everywhere in New Zealand), the uniqueness here being that these springs are alkaline. We certainly enjoyed soaking in them for a pleasant half hour.
Then up to Whitianga in the beautiful Coromandel peninsula to visit Alicia, Andy and Jemima (incredibly cute and contented). We were looked after royally, being taken out on the boat to go diving, snorkelling and catching crayfish (while i stayed on board trying not to vomit) which the boys cooked when they got home. Whilst there we also got to go to the most interesting local pub in the world, to hotwater beach (a beach where you can dig into a hot spring and sit in there with your botty all warm while the cold tide comes in, and snorkelling in the marine reserves in cathedral cove. Lovely.
We were really sorry to leave... but there were more delights in store. Rotorua, with all it's bubbling mud pools and geothermal bits and pieces, and the necessary touristy evening in a Maori village being fed and introduced to some of their culture and customs. Then on to the more isolated Lake Waikaremoana. This involved driving 100km on dirt road, an escapade that me Julie coped with admirably. The atmosphere here was amazing - we stayed in a little motor camp, miles from anything and went walking and boating and swimming in one of the smaller lakes (cold!). Following this we headed back to Wellington via Napier so that I could get my fix of nice restaurants - lovely lunch in a vineyard followed by dinner in a very vibrant jazz bar (preceded by the necessary game of mini golf).
Photos are, from top:
1. Hot geothermal stuff at Rotorua
2. Alicia, Andy and Jemima
3. Hahei beach (Coromandel)
4. Opoutere beach (Coromandel)
5. me bemused by the Maori boat used in 'The Piano' (look closely)
6. me beside Lake Waikeromoana
7. Ash doing a sterling job near Lake W

exploring the north island 1: whanganui to raglan

In February we had 2 blissful sunshine-filled weeks off, during which we explored some of the north island. I don't agree with people who think the north island is inferior to the south - it has sooo many beautiful areas and gets great weather so there. We started off driving on a dirt road alongside the beautiful Wanganui river (quite isolated, perfect for an impromptu swim) and then up to the Waitomo caves, a labyrinth of underground caves (as opposed to the overground type) with glowworms. As can be seen from the photo, it involved getting into wetsuits and floating on underground rivers sitting in rubber tubes. All sounds very peaceful, but i did have a moment where i felt very claustrophobic and found the prospect of jumping backwards off a 2 metre high underground waterfall into the river clearly ludicrous.

Next stop after Waitomo was Raglan, a lovely laid-back surfy town with nice coffee shops, beautiful beaches, and the biggest attractions of all: The Churns! It was fab staying with Pete, (fellow GP) Lucy and Ben in their airy stylish house, being wined and dined and introduced to the joys of parenthood. You can see gorgeous Ben having a deep and meaningful with Ash in the photo.

up by the wind turbine

As many of you will know by now we are engaged, yay! - but i have been told by Ash that i'm not allowed to put a photo of the ring on our blog... so instead, here are some photos the place where Ash got down on one knee.... It's a place on the outskirts of the city which has amazing views and a lovely feel to it. It's the highest point in wellington and there are views down to the south island on a clear day.