Rotarua

Hi,
This morning was a bit of a slow start - in fact it ended up lasting into the arvo, so it was just a slow day, which was nice, as we had time to sort out the van, and now we actually feel like we are finally organised in our little home! Having said a fond farewell to Uncle Malcolm and Fiona, who have been just awesome the past few days (Thanks so much guys!), we set out for Rotarua, about an hours drive from The Mount, a lakeside town famous for it's hot springs. So here we are in a little caravan park with it's own hot pools (not the stinky ones - although the whole town has that sulphur-y aroma, which is lovely...not), and back for some more nights in our little blue van, which will probably actually be a lot improved with the kind addition of a couple more blankets from Uncle Malcolm and Fiona, which will be much appreciated now that we are without the comforts of their nice warm house! Anyway, I am watching the timer on the ridiculously exopensive internet run down (I have 2 mins and 44 secs left!), so another short post, this time without even any photos as these silly computers dont have usb drives.
So the next few days will probably consist of sight seeing aroung Rotarua and Taupo, then on to Mt Ruapehu (yeah...those meanies who didn't give us jobs)...
So hopefully a more substantial post for you guys next time :)

xoxoxoxox

A Few Days of Rest

Hi,

Sorry it's been a couple of days with no word, but there really hasn't been much to report! As I have been a bit flu-ey we have been taking it easy in the comfort of Malcolm and Fiona's lovely home, with their Sky TV (NZ's version of Foxtel), haha, well not ALL day! lol.

We (Bohdi) have also done some stuff on the car, replacing a tyre, changing the oil, sorting out our insurance, etc. So it has been good to have a couple of days just to relax, and get all sorted. Apart from that, we have caught up with my cousin Mark, who I haven't seen in I don't know how long, and met his girlfriend Nicole, which was great. Today was probably our most eventful, as we did finally did the walk up The Mount, (of Mt Maunganui), which was a lovely walk but not nearly as easy as Uncle Malcolm made it out to be!! I'm far more inclined to agree with Nicole, who said she nearly died after 15mins!!! It was pretty steep. Fortunately we made it, just in tome for the sunset, which made for an amazing view.

Well we are going to see what happens with the van tommorrow, as Boh still has a couple of things to check out, and then head off to Rotarua and Lake Taupo, before going down to Wellington.

So more soon,'

xoxoxox

Beautiful horizon as we were walking down.

Us at the bottom.

A scary part of then track.

The view around the bay.

The lovely sunset from the summit.

Me struggling up the slope.

The beach shaded by the Mt.

THE SPA!!!!!! Awesome...

Another sunset picture.

The beach after dark.

A Warm Bed!

Hi there,
as the title suggests tonight holds in store for us a nice warm bed (sorry bluey) haha as we have arrived at my Unlce Malcolm's in Mt Maunganui, and Bluey is safely parked outside with us injside in the warmth. The reason this is such a big deal is that it has been FREEZING here, last night was so cold we considered sleeping in the tv room of the caravan park we were staying in even though the heater in there was pretty useless. In the end we just rugged up for bed with thermals, trackies, jumpers, beanies and I even wore a scarf!

But anyway, I suppose we left you in Pahia on wednesday...

Thursday morning was an especially chilly one for Boh, as the caravan park didnt seem to have hot showers for the men, despite the fact that my shower was toasty! So it was a bit of a rough start for poor old Boh, but the day warmed up a little as we made our way up to Kerikeri, which was where the Auckland backpackers had told us to ask for work. After a bit of a search we found the right place, but alas, we arrived to discover that the orchards had had a bad season so there was pretty much nothing in the way of seasonal work, and I suppose thats to be expected in light of the current economic climate. So there we were in Kerikeri, having driven half the length of the North Island on the advice of the guy from the backpackers, who said "nah, don't phone, just rock up!". But that was all cool because we found the B.O.I to be beautiful and definately worth the drive. But we decided that from there we would head back down on the other side of the island and set off towards the Waipou Forest. It was quite a drive, through scenic forestry, and we got our first real taste of New Zealand's winding roads, which gave Bohdi a good workout with no power-steering! Dad had told us to make sure we checked out the giant Kauri tree on our way through this area so we stopped off and walked the short track to "The Lord of the Forest"or in Mauri "Tane...something..."I can only remember that part of the name because that is the Mauri spelling for my name!!! So this 2000 year old plus tree that is believed to have been around during the lifetime of christ is actually named after me!! Haha well who knows who is named after who...After reaching Trounson Kauri Park, we stayed the night in a caravan park in the valley in the forest, surrounded by a beautiful river, and with very nice clean and tidy facilities (we spent a good deal of time in the warm tv room there!). This was followed by an incredibly cold night in Bluey, which didn't make for the most amazing rest, but we had a long day of driving ahead, our longest yet, so early (ish) the next morning....

We set off for Thames (who we have just learned is actually pronounced temmes...why...), which meant travelling the distance we had covered in the past 2 days, in reverse, plus quite a bit more, going through Auckland and out to the Coramandel Peninsula. It was a long trip, but made quicker by the interesting surrounds and some more winding roads. Really not a particularly eventful day, but we did cover a fair bit of distance. Finally arriving in Thames at about 5pm, we settled into a little caravan park on the outskirts of the town, bordered by a pretty stream, and, to Bohdi's delight, equipped with a FREE mini-golf course!!! This we got down to immediately, and I am quite proud to say I flogged! Hahaha, will teach the man at the park to say "oh, she doesn't want to waste time getting beaten at mini-golf"...yeah right...lol, so that was fun, for me. By the time the game was over our fingers were pretty much frozen solid, and it was time to thaw out by the tiny heater I mentioned earlier, not particularly effective unfortunately. Whilst attempting to reanimate our frozen digits we introduced ourselves to another couple who where also just there for the warmth, and probably the space, as they planned to spend the night in their Suziki Vitara....yeah....I can't believe we didn't walk into the tv room to find them asleep there this morning!

So this morning needless to say there was little time spent sitting in the cold, so we got started on today's trip immediately, as we had decided to take a bit of a detour on our way to Mt Maunganui to see the famous Hot Water Beach up on the eastern side of the Peninsula. This led to possibly the scariest experience of my life so far....our first experience driving on ice....so scary. There we were heading up the side of a hill on a winding road, when we see a sign "Ice and Grit" uh oh, and lots of frost on the plants on the sides of the road, double uh ohs. Luckily we erred on the side of caution, as even the kiwis where going slow, so Boh mananged to keep us on the road, even if we did a fair bit of sliding. So glad we were going up the hill and not down it! Scariest thing was that someone had already had a crash this morning, as there was glass all over one section of the road, and skid marks on the edge, and there were some cops and road crew there warning people to slow down. Phew, so we survived that, but are not looking fopward to the driving on the colder South Island now! Anyway we got to Hot Water Beach and were not dissapointed, though the tide was in so the only part of us that felt the water was our toes, which we dug down in the sand at the direction of another beach-goer, and were shocked to find very hot water, too hot in fact. So this was kinda cool, but time to hit the road again after a quick call home to catch up with mum and dad. After a swing by Whangamata, one of dad's old surf hangouts, we pushed on to reach Mt Maunganui by about 4 or 5pm (we aren't really keeping track of time that much). It was great to see Uncle Malcolm again, and he had soon settled us in, and even took us for a spin around the Mt and picked up some stuff for dinner, as he has gone out to a friends 50th, leaving us at home with the spa!!! Haha, I sacrificed my spa time for the blog, but Boh braved the cold and had a nice relaxing one. So here we are, and it's definately bed time, especially seeing as though we have a lovely warm bed to go to...mmm...

So Goodnight!
xoxoxox

Bay of Islands

Hi from a caravan park in the beautiful Bay of Islands,
After 2 non-stop days of driving....just kidding! More like 3hrs or so spread out over 2 days because a) we are just a little lazy, b) we got distracted in Albany yesterday...yes, there is a place called Albany here too! haha, and c) Bluey's headlights are one iota above useless, so we can't drive in the dark if we value our lives...hence the elongated journey. But it has been a fairly nice journey so far, Bluey is treating us well, the weather hasn't been too horrible, and the scenery has been amazing (Tahns' mum, you were right, this end was definitely worth a look).

So yesterday was not too eventful after we posted in the morning (we actually spent like over 2hrs in that cafe, those people must have been wondering if we were planning on staying all day), apart from being freaked out by our first toll-way (not sure if thats what they are actually called but thats the best we can do), amazed by the hugest service station ever - it actually had a Burger King, a clothes shop, a cafe, the toll thingy, plus all the normal service station stuff (jeez one or two sizes up from Caltex...we felt like we were in America-that place was ridiculous!), and awakened to the insane driving of these mad Kiwis, who by the way seem to take no notice of speed signs whatsoever, and take any opportunity to whiz by the ole' 1.6L Bluey as he trundles up a hill. But apart from these few eye-openers, just a day of driving, and a little while of being lost, as we got confused by the lack of sign-age on our way to the campsite (which we later realized was just the results of Bluey's extra awesome headlights - on our second time past the huge sign...). A quick snack before bed (we were drawn in by the hypnotic powers of Burger King earlier in the evening) and we were out like lights.

Although we had vowed to get going early this morning, it was actually like 10.30am before we finally pulled out of the little campsite and back on track for the B.O.I - as we will now call the Bay of Islands - (after I had my first practice-drive of Bluey...column drive is actually not as different as I would have thought, but Boh likes driving anyways which is fine with me). After only a quick stop in Whangarei it was a surprisingly short time before we arrived in the B.O.I to find a stunning little coastal area dotted with a massive amount of hotels, motels, resorts, tourist parks, caravan rest areas - you name it, and its there (like seriously, one in two buildings on the road into town was some sort of accommodation!). After having minor explore, and checking out the comparative prices and freebies offered by all the caravan parks we have ended up in a little beach-side one with Wi-Fi internet (a big selling point). Probably should have taken a photo of Bluey in his little spot, but it's dark now so Bluey is asleep, and we are on our way there with full bellies after our first real meal since leaving Uncle Kerry and Ginny's - guess what...pasta! surprise surprise...lol. And plenty for lunch tomorrow too.

Oh yeah, another thing that we discovered yesterday which is totally awesome and I don't understand why they don't have it in Aus is this crazy place called "Pack'n'Save". IT IS INSANE. Everything is like half the price of Woolies, and it's massive, and everything is just in boxes on the shelves. Craaaazy...

Anyway, its dark, so its bedtime for us. We are thinking of going kayaking out in the Bay tomorrow cos it's only like $10. Yay!

More soon,xoxoxoxox



(picture for henry...)

WE HAVE A HOME!!!

BELOW: (all our stuff)
(Cool dog we saw)
Hi!
It has been a very exciting couple of days everyone!
Biggest news: WE HAVE A VAN!!!! IT IS BLUE!!!
But I know you will all want to know every detail of what has happened since our last blog (yes that means you mum), so it's back to Saturday - a highly disappointing and annoying day.

So having spent the night in a backpackers (which wasn't all that bad actually - though pretty expensive...) we set off first thing in the morning (after storing our luggage at the backpackers) to Victoria Park, where there was a car market on. It was quite a long walk, mostly uphill, and we wanted to be there relatively early so as not to miss out, so we had a very brisk start to the morning. As soon as we arrived we were disappointed, as there were only a couple of vans there, and, Bohdi being the procrastinator that he is, we weren't allowed to look at any until we saw what else arrived. After a few more unlikely looking prospects pulled in, we decided to go have a look at a cool red van with an awesome interior - think blue couches that folded into a bed. But after test driving it around the block, and having a look at the engine (obviously Bohdi is in charge of both of those things...) Boh found that it had a pretty dodgy old engine, and had done a lot of km's. So even though it was super-cool inside (more my area of expertise), we had said from the start it would be worth having something with a solid engine and less-cool interior, than having something that might die or be hard to re-sell, which meant that unfortunately the cool red van was out. This led to us sitting on the side of the road, debating about walking back and really not wanting to, until we got a text from some other people with a diesel van (diesel is cheaper here by about 50c/L - although you have to pay this weird tax on it at the post office, and buy a certain amount of km's at like 3c/km, which would be a hassle), and organized to meet them where we were. Another test drive, another awkward conversation with Europeans, and although this time the engine was ok, the inside was sooooooo tiny...and we really didn't think we would be able to live in that teensy space. So it was the long walk into the city, then out to the supermarket and back, before reluctantly heading back to the backpackers for another night.

Sunday - a much more awesome day, on the whole.

After a terrible night during which we spent a fair bit of time swearing quietly at our ridiculously loud-spoken, early rising (who the hell gets up at 5am on a Sunday!!!), and squeaky door-using, foreign neighbors, we again stored our luggage and headed out into the rain...Arriving at the train station after another brisk walk, we puzzled out our tickets (the nice lady at the backpackers told us the station to get off at), and ended up following around a helpful train driver, and eventually got on the right train. Did you know that no-one in Auckland (apart from us) actually buys tickets for the train...until the ticket checker dude comes around. Call us country bumpkins, but we found it strange (he even gave us weird looks when we showed him our already-bought tickets). Anyway, when we arrived at our stop, it began to pour again (typical), so we trudged off squelchily, and managed to find the car market quite easily, again based on the directions the nice backpackers lady gave us. And then the rain really started. Fabulous. This market was actually huge, with food vans and everything, so there was lots of prospective new homes to check out. We started with a quick initial sweep of the vans, eliminating the pricey or dodgy ones, and mentally picking out the more awesome ones. We (and by "we", I mean Bohdi) test drove a few, while the awesome one (and by that I mean Tahnee - me) stood in the rain making awkward conversations with people trying to sell all the good things about their vans in accented and stilted English. Eventually we had to down to two (both petrol, as the only diesel there was the midgetmobile we had seen the day before)...a big red van, priced at $3000, owned by a little French girl - Pro's: awesomely set up, fold down bed, Cons: column drive, impossible to see out the back of, a little pricey (especially if she was unwilling to negotiate), and debatabley reliable engine. And a medium-sized blue van priced at $2790, owned by a couple from the Czech Republic - Pro's: pimped by its old owner, blue, more reliable engine, easy to see out the back of, Con's: not a hell-of-a-lot-of space apart from the bed, still a little out of our price range - but not impossibly so, and column drive. After a long debate (If only Boh had read his mum's advice earlier!), we put in a $2000 offer on the Blue Van - and got rejected... so we had another long debate, and then put in another offer at $2300, to which they replied that they could come down to $2500 minimum...So we went and had some lunch...and debated some more...then went back and offered them $2500. And thats how we got Blue Van.

So now it is Monday, and we have spent our first night in Bluey (our highly imaginative name for our blue van), at an awesome place that our new French-Canadian friends told us about. Yeah btw....WE HAVE FRIENDS!! We don't know their names...and we probably won't see them again...but they are our friends...(we met them because they are selling their van, which was cool, but gutless - but they weren't offended that we didn't buy it). Anyway, they showed us this place which is right on the harbor, where bulk people just like park their campervans - some people even live there!!! So that was our home last night.

Right now we are sitting in the same cafe we were in the other day, because they give a free hour of internet with every purchase, and we also have a bunch of vouchers from our collection which gives us a free drink when we buy another drink. So thats two hot drinks, and a free hour of internet for the price of one coffee. Pretty nice.
Well, the plan for today is to get our insurance on the van sorted, then head off to the Bay Of Islands...hopefully we will be able to find some work there, and stay for a few weeks...well thats that then.
More soon!
xoxox

Out in the Big Wide World...

Hey there everyone,
sorry its been a few days, but we just havn't had the time to go online in the past few. ok...so lets see what exactly has happened since the last post...

Wednesday: Another early morning to catch the ferry to Auckland for more Van-shopping, and this time we actually managed to look at two! But neither were exactly what we were looking for, so we decided to keep looking for the moment, so no show-stopping developments there. Probably the most impressive thing about today was the insanely ridonkulous amount of walking we did! It was crazy! We thought we did a lot of walking on monday in the city, but oooh no...today we at least doubled that! We went all the way up Queenstreet (which is all a gradual hill), then halfway back down again before we realised we had lost the piece of paper we had written all the numbers we had collected for the Vans! So while Boh waited for pizza I did a speedy retracing of the top half of the street, including a quick second climb of the most AWESOME building ever! It's some sort of cinema complex, but thats relatively unimportant when compared to the sheer size of this place! it was huuuge, and we went aaall the way up the stairs (twice for me...). After giving up on finding the numbers, we ended up going back to collect them all again, off the noticeboards of numerous backpackers hostels, before heading on out to the "AA" building (and no, we have not become alchoholics and had to join Alchoholics Anonymous...it is the NZ version of the licensing department) which was probably another half hour walk. Then of course we had to trek all the way up to Albert Park, the route to which, by the way, we think is representative of NZ being a country full of ludicrously steep hills. Finally it was back down to the ferry to head back to our island paradise (lol). Anyways, I suppose all this is not quite so impressive of you don't know Auckland, but lets just say it was a big day for walking (we did the sport proud...hahaha...walking...a sport...).

Thursday: Now today we had put aside as a historical learning day, with our trip to "Stony Batter", the WWII gun emplacement on the northern tip of Waiheke Island the compulsory activity, as it was our last day on the island. After a lazy morning and a tentative start for the "red rocket", we started out on the scenic drive Ginny had marked out for us, touring around the northern half of the island, which is largely farmland and vineyards. Speaking of vineyards, if any of you guys back in Aus. have been grape-picking, and found that it was hardly the easiest job in the world - YOU SHOULD SEE THIS PLACE - they put vineyards EVERYWHERE! On the side of small mountains, for instance. After discovering this, we decided that maybe it wasn't such a bad thing we had missed the season for picking and pruning...not so bad at all...
Anyway, after a few wrong turns, and a bunch of pretty awse photos, a slightly scared Bohdi (the roads here are pretty narrow, and it kinda freaks you out when you notice the cliff dropping off right beside you), and I arrived at the old outpost. As the land aroung Stony Batter is privately owned, no cars are allowed past a certain point, but the short walk to the site (about 1.3km) was beautiful, with the rocky outcrops, sheep, and palm trees (yep, palm trees...) in plentiful supply. The gun placements are actually built into the hillside, so are connected by a warren of tunnels, which, while quite interesting, I found more than a little frightening, especially when the lady there giving directions gave really crap directions (I suppose she was a volunteer, so we can hardly complain...plus, we could have had a fully guided tour for $15 more....but we thought the $8 entry fee pretty much filled our historic learning budget). So after a VERY roundabout walk back to the car after leaving the tunnels, it was home for our last night at Kerry and Ginny's.

Today: After a fond farewell to Kerry and Ginny, who caught the ferry in with us as they are headed off to Brisbane for a few days, it was time to find out exactly how much luggage is tooo much....and I'm sad to say that that amount is faaaaaaar outweighed by our ridiculous amount of crap. (Sorry mum and dad...you were right! lol) So after an embarrassing trek up Queenstreet (possibly doing long-term damage to both our shoulders and our pride) we finally found a hostel with vacant double rooms (haaaleluyah...haleluyah...- choir of angels sing), we settled in for our first night as true backpackers (minus the backpacks...and plus about a tonne of luggage).

Hopefully tomorrow will be the day we finally find our new best friend for the rest of the trip!
We are headed to the local car market held every saturday here in Auckland.

Wish us luck,
xoxox

Rainy Days...

Hey everyone,
Yesterday was a big day of walking, as we headed into Auckland to check out the backpackers and start our search for a van. Kerry and Ginny were kind enough to point us in the right direction off the ferry, and we managed to actually accomplish quite a bit, getting our phones set up, changing some money, and checking out all the notice boards about Vans for sale. We even found the "Backpacker's Car Market", where a quite helpful guy was able to give us a few pointers, and also gave us a little bit of a wake-up call along the lines of "you get what you pay for...". We had a big walk down Queenstreet, and checked out the Viaduct, where there were some AWESOME super-yachts moored, and also the Team New Zealand racing yacht which was pretty cool. So apart from a bit of a desperate dash to and from the super-market just in time for the ferry, it was a pretty good day. Having cooked our fanous meal of pasta for dinner (when we say famous it means it's famous for being the only thing we CAN cook...), it was straight to bed to catch up on some zzzz's, looking foward to a nice sleep in.

Waking up to the rain this morning meant that our original plans for the day were cancelled, as we had planned to head out to Stony Batter, an old gun station on the northern part of Waiheke, and Ginny had warned us that it would most likely be closed if it did rain. So instead we had a fairly lazy morning reading our vast, and growing collection of brochures (which we discovered often include discount vouchers! Awessssome...), which could probably be considered the beginnings of a small tourist library. Finally we decided to power up the red rocket and head into town to this internet cafe, and now off to check out a local art exhibition. Just have to make sure we always park on a hill, because the old girl just isn't that keen on starting up when its cold (prompted by a slightly embarrassing episode of roll-starting the car in the pouring rain...).

Post again soon
xoxox

awesome view from the house