Seeking the sunrise has been a theme a few times on this East Coast holiday and today we got up extra early for another sunrise mission. The location for the sun vigil was East Cape lighthouse and we had a 50km drive and then a walk up a path of 700 odd steps before we’d […]
East Coast Holiday: Eastenders Backpackers
Up early we took a walk with the backpackers dog Tux to watch the sunrise. We walked down the road and headed uphill through a gate labelled with a sunrise sign, Tux leading the whole time. A farm track took us upwards until we came to a rise where we could see the ocean and […]
East Coast Holiday: Driving up the East Cape
We had modest plans for a few walks at a couple of bays on the way north but this never panned out. It was hot from early on and I was having a lazy day so we did no walking tracks. Our first proper stop was at Tolaga Bay where we first watched a battered […]
East Coast Holiday: Gisborne
Photo by Brendon & Keryn Waiting for sunrise at Wainui Beach We had an early start this morning to catch the low tide and a walk out onto a reef to feed some stingrays with Dive Tatapouri. Actually before that, the previous day, we had actually done not a lot due to inclement weather. It […]
East Coast Holiday: Driving to Gisborne
Leaving Lake Waikaremoana we headed back towards state highway 2, the road to Gisborne. We had one stop at the small town of Tuai and took a brief look at the power station. The building was old and statuesque and in stark contrast the turbines inside were brightly colored and much more modern looking. We’d […]
East Coast Holiday: Panekire Bluffs
We didn’t have time to do the full Lake Waikaremoana great walk but I still convinced Keryn that we should do a section of the track. The Panekire Bluff rises high above the southern shoreline and promised great views, if only the weather would play along. It didn’t look good as we drove to the […]
East Coast Holiday: Waikaremoana
Leaving Napier we drove towards Lake Waikaremoana in the Te Urewera National Park. The road degraded as we headed inland, become largely gravel, and the weather came in as we drove along leaving us driving through rain under a grey sky. Still camping we were booked for two nights at the Lake Waikaremoana Motorcamp and […]
East Coast Holiday: Napier
Being in Napier it seemed only natural to visit a winery. We took ourselves to the Church Road winery for a tour and tasting. The first tour of the day only had six people including us so it was a quite intimate tour, though I’m thinking that touring wineries is something we won’t be doing […]
East Coast Holiday: Cape Kidnappers
We’ve been back in New Zealand for a year now and a couple of weeks back we took our first proper holiday, taking the time to visit some of the country. The plan was to drive up the east coast of the north island from Napier up and around to Whakatane. We planned to camp, […]
Family Christmas
We travelled down to Timaru by car, taking the Blue Bridge ferry across Cook Stait. We had Patricia and Sam with us and Patricia has inside knowledge for the first ferry, running off to find us a cabin upstairs. It was nice to have an area we could relax and have our own space. Photo […]
Northumbria
Our last holiday in the UK (this time around) saw us travel up north to New Mills and visit Patty and Sam. We stayed the night and then travelled together up to Northumberland where we stayed at the Old Repeater Station near the middle of Haridan’s Wall. Over the long weekend we walked parts of […]
Christmas Day
Today was spent preparing food, watching DVD’s, eating said food and relaxing. There was also a little walk as the evening went from sunset to dusk. Rather than go into details here are a few photos of our hosts and the house where this all happened. Preparing dinner Walking after dinner At the hilltop New […]