Travels

Saturday 13th December

Friday 12th December We took a drive to Waihi via Paeroa.  They have a few antique shops – I invested in another old lock for my collection.. Waihi is a gold mine owned by Newmont.  The town has a giant open pit right in the middle and it is just

Thursday 11th December We woke to rain this morning.  We are staying in a lovely A Frame apartment on the waterfront in the town of Thames, the first and largest town on the Coromandel Peninsula. It has a population of 6,500 and is certainly steeped in history. However our aim

Wednesday 10th December We woke to a beautiful morning in Doubtless Bay.  After a walk along the beach we headed off on a long drive.  Our aim was to reach the Coromandel Peninsula by the end of the day.  However we did really want to see The Lord of the

Tuesday 9th December 2014 Today we took a Dune Rider adventure to the very tip of NZ – Cape Reinga.  We started the day with a few tame activities.  We visited a kauri wood workshop and started to learn about these amazing trees.  Firstly to just understand how huge these

Monday 8th December We drove from Paihia to Mangonui via Kerikeri.  Mangonui is a very sleepy fishing village in Doubtless Bay.  We have a great beachfront apartment overlooking the Bay in Coopers Beach.  In times gone past this was a whaling centre.  Coopers Beach being named after the coopers who

Sunday 7th December Another beautiful day on the water.  How could we resist.  We woke to a warm, calm, fine day.  So decided to make the most of it and hopped on board an Explore boat and headed out to explore the Bay of Islands.  There are 144 islands, mostly

Friday 5th December Another very relaxed start to the day.  We drove to the next bay north of Tutukaka and walked out to the lighthouse.  As suggested this walk needs to be taken whilst the tide is low so the crossing between land masses is a dry one.  We climbed

Thursday 4th December We finally bid farewell to Algies Bay and drove north to  Tutukaka via the scenic route. Although everywhere seems to be a scenic route in New Zealand.  The coastline is spectacular, the roads are windy, but the traffic is minimal.   We stopped along the way to

Monday 1st December 2014 We picked up a hire car from the airport and drove north out of Auckland to Warkworth.  With no real plan in mind we have ended up in Algies Bay.  A beautiful little seaside village with a self contained cottage right on the beach.  We have