Bye bye NZ - Hello Australia

19th October
I haven’t been able to provide an update for the last couple of days as its been tricky. After our nights stay in Paiha, we woke up the next morning pretty casually and started getting our gear together. We booked the Rock the Boat trip, which was an overnight stay in a boat, with a tour of the bay of islands. It looked like it was going to be fun for sure! There were lots of activities planned, but I will go into that a little later. The boat trip started @ 5pm, so I thought we wouldn’t waste the day and head to the Kauri forest, however as I was walking to the bank in the morning to pick up some cash first, I was thinking to myself how it was pointless to drive there and back, when we are going to drive past the forest on our way out of Paiha. So the plan formulated over breakfast to being going to the Harura falls, then I would go to Waitangi Treaty Grounds whilst the rents chilled in Paiha then we’d meet for some food, pack for the trip and find somewhere to leave the car for the night.
The Harura falls were good, another example of fine NZ natural beauty however as far as falls go, we’ve all been to Niagra and that pretty much craps all over whatever NZ has to offer in terms of falls. That being said we shouldn’t compare as it will always lead to disappointment, however it definitely led to pleasant viewing. The cool thing about the falls, here is you can pretty much hop from rock to rock, ending up almost in the middle of the falls...definitely makes for an incredible picture or 2 for sure. After looking at the falls, there was a 4k Waitangi trail taking us around the river and to a golf course, we took the trailing thinking it was simply a waterfall river loop however it was a 2 way trail you had to go back to get back to the beginning, after 1k we decided to head back. It was a fun trail with cool walking features some awesome greenery and good exercise.
We decided to part ways after the trail and I headed to Waitangi treaty grounds. I managed to get a ½ price entry with my working holiday visa which made the $25 to $13 entrance fee a little more bearable. The treaty grounds were absolutely beautiful. Initially I walked through to an exhibition of a few pictures of Mauri’s and Europeans who signed the Treaty of Waitangi. I then walked through the grounds to where the big Mauri War Boat was...it was built in honour of the treaty of Waitangi and its pretty epic. I got some good snaps. I then moved onto the European and Mauri Houses on the grounds, built to represent unity between the European settlers and the Maori natives in New Zealand. The houses and the grounds were just incredible and the story behind them is incredible. I would tell it but I don’t remember a huge amount of detail J!
After I met up with the rentals and we had some lunch and go our stuff together for the trip. We boarded at 5pm and met the crew and the rest of our guests. The atmosphere was real pleasant and it was nice to meet new and different people. The crew were nice guys...I have fond memories of Tom a 19 year old Aussie, and Risa a 22 year old Mauri NZ chick working on board, they were both cool. That evening we hung out whilst the boat was cruising around the islands. It was incredible, like paradise, there are around 144 islands in the bay of islands and I am not sure how many we say but each one was as good looking as the nexted. We fished , our rods were baited for us by the crew and we were taught how to fish and how to cast our bait. I managed to catch a fish and it was a good feeling! We threw it back in the water, not before Ben asked me to kiss it goodbye, I said no so he kissed it for me! It was pretty cool. We then had an evening meal which was pretty crap considering the amount we paid for the trip. After dinner we went night kayaking and Ben one of the crew said it was his favourite part of the cruise. I could see why, kayaking out into the middle of the bay of islands where the water is so still and the night sky was so clear was incredible. It was like something out of a dream. The stars were beautiful, we paddled out far enough away from the boat not to hear the generator and then just sat back and chilled in our kayaks gazing into the night sky. I remember at that moment thinking life couldn’t get much better.
I forgot to mention that the trip started with a duck shooting game, where we had a paintball gun and we had to shoot a fake duck that was attached by rope to the boat that was just bobbing in the water. Karsten won and got a free beer! It was a tough shot.
I remember the views being incredible and taking far too many pictures.
Today we woke up to breakfast and then sailed to one of the islands and parked up. I kayaked to shore with some of the guests and it was paradise. It was something out of the movie the beach! It was insanely beautiful I didnt believe I was there. We hiked to the top of the Island we parked up on and had some incredible views of the rest of the islands. We then snorkelled and had some fun on the beach including snorkelling for sea urchants and playing rugby on the beach.
We boarded the boat and made way for land, en route we cracked into the sea urchants eggs, I didnt go near it and toward the end we caught a huge fish which was killed on deck and served up as Sushimi.
The cruise was epic, so much fun. After we had some food and drove and drove to Dragaville 200kms! En route we stopped at some natural hot pools which were relaxing though we didnt think they were too clean. But I suppose that part of it. The place stank of sulphur due to the geothermal heat produced underneath the waters but it was pretty mean!! We then stopped at the biggest living Karui tree in Waipu Forest! It was HUGE!!!
We were pretty stoked to pull into Dragaville after a long journey. We got ourselves checked into a decent motel and had a nice Indian meal ...now its time for bed.
21st Oct 2010
Not much to report from our travels really, we spent a long time driving from Dragaville to Thames stopping en route to see the Kauri Museum. It was real interesting, all about the Kauri logging industry and how it evolved over time in New Zealand. I cant really think of much else we did apart from Plough onto Thames, when we arrived we found a hotel and ate some Thai food.
Today we drove from Thames to Coromandel, not before doing some shopping in Thames shopping centre. We drove to Corrie and stopped at the iSite and the kind lady helped us with our plan, we started by finding some lovely accommodation and then went for a railway tour in the forest. The tour was pretty good, the lines were made by a potter who build the railway to get clay for his potting. Overtime the railway grew and grew and to pay the debts created as a result of building the railway had to be paid by opening the railway to the public. Its an interesting little tour of a once burnt down forest which is now going through reforestation process.
After we went back to our accom for lunch and went for a looong scenic drive. We are back at home about to tuck into some homecooked food and dvds.
Peace

22nd October
Today we woke up and started to make tracks toward Whitianga...before that we drove through road 309 in Coromandel, there were a few nice stops on the road, one of which was Stuart and his wild pigs. This was literally a man who has dedicated his life to his pets – a group of wild pigs. I assume he doesn’t nothing for work and accepts donations but is a nice humble fellow who discussed the history of the pigs and how he takes care of them...incredibly nice man.
After we drove on to a nice waterfall with some great photo opportunities as you could walk right out onto the falls. I got some funny pictures for sure. It was incredibly beautiful, the Coromandel is stunning and what helped is we actually had some nice weather.
We drove over to New Chums Beach! It was an incredible beautiful beach and we walked along it for a while. It was like paradise! So nice!!
We made out way to Whitianga, and had some lunch on the beach, after we took a passenger ferry over to cooks beach and walked for an hour or so before then driving to our final destination Waihi beach...I don’t know why but after cooks beach I was just over it...so tired I remember just passing out in the car...
We hunted around for accommodation and this time we found a gem...$100 to stay in a converted basement, it has two huge rooms, its out on the beach front, it has a POOL table, sky tv and a hot tub...we just watched the Orphan and I am sat here typing whiles watching the watchmen. Tomorrow looks like we will spend some time in Waihi and then either drive to Auckland straight or go to Mount Manganui before heading to Auckland.
Peace and love!

25th October

I am writing this from Sunny Melbourne Australia having just left New Zealand – I was quite emo but this trip promises to be great – I have already met all my cousins for the second time ever! They are all smart young boys...I’ll go into them in a second.
After our incredible night in Waihi beach the next morning we got ready to hear out, not before a morning walk on the beach and an early morning Jacuzzi, it would have been rude not to use the facilities and take advantage of the incredible position. The owners Calvin and his wife were lovely warm welcoming people. What we have found on our travels around NZ is the people are always friendly and generally happy. Its been incredible!
We made our move not before stopping in Waihi town to visit the quarry, the old pumphouse and the museum where we learnt more about the gold mining town that is Waihi! It was a pretty historic town and the Pumphouse was a building that was moved a few hundred meters which was an engineering feat! We then trundled along to Mount Manganui, not before stopping in Tauranga to buy some stuff, I bought a few new cheap shirts and my folks bought 2 suitcases – we repacked and got on our way...the mount was awesome, it looked like there was loads to do its such a shame we were only there for a couple of hours. We were short on time as we had to make a 3hr drive to Auckland that evening. We had some lunch on the shore and I wanted to walk up the mount, it took me about 40 mins to walk up there and the views from the top of the mount were incredible...writing about it looking back makes me sad I didnt spend more time in the mount. My parents cruised around town before picking me up and then we made the massive drive to Auckland. When we arrived, I picked up my snowboard bag from Anna’s house and hung out with her for an hour, it was good to see her she is a funny girl for sure.
We repacked all the bags that evening had some dinner then the next morning we got ourselves in shape to leave NZ...we had the day in Auckland so we went shopping in New Market and I bought some billabong jeans and a hat...both were pretty mean! I met up with Chloe and Stu for a drink to catch up and talk about Japan and then had an amazing Wagamamas lunch. We rocked up to the airport and jumped on our flight. Emirates flight was epic – I watched The last of the airbenders and the Twightlight Eclipse....The latter movie was a waste of my life, but I wanted to complete watching the trilogy...airbenders was sooo good. And the food was sooo nice too Lamb Tagine!! So good!
We landed in Melbourne and got our bags pretty quick – It was strange leaving new Zealand but its ok i’ll return one day! If I could do my travels with my parents diff I would have picked 4 quality places and spent a couple of days in each – probably Pahia, Coromandel and the Mount but oh well! We had a great time.
It was great seeing my uncle and I met my cousins for the second time ever. The one I had never met before was in bed. Ishaan and Rashay were up waiting and we caught up for a little. They are both good kids and really chatty I enjoyed meeting them again! I feel like one of those oldiest you meet when you were a kid who always used to say I remember meeting you when you were a little baby and I was thinking “who are you!” thats probably what they think of me but its all good! We went to but and now im up doing this – but I better get ready
Peace and love!