Paihia & Russell
By the time we got to Paihia in the Bay of Island the weather had turned very wet and windy. We took a ferry across to picturesque Russell and had a walk around their old wooden church and museum and that evening had a very nice gourmet meal at a restaurant called Pure Taste
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| Downtown Russell |
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| The wooden church in Russell |
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Kauri Forest
As the weather was so bad on the coast we decided to move inland and visit the Kauri forest before moving to the west coast. The two largest Kauris in NZ are thought to be about 2000 years old. They were ENORMOUS – about 21ft in girth and if you can imagine a small dot at the bottom of this photo that would be a person standing at the bottom!!
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| This one was about 2000 years old.... |
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| This one was only about 600 years old (I don't mean Malc!) |
We visited the Kauri museum on our way to our next stop at Kai Iwi Lakes. The museum was really interesting and included some historic original sawmill machinery as well as a special exhibition of Kauri Gum. It’s amazing now to think that in less than 100 years ago man was indiscriminately chopping down these ancient and beautiful forests.
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| A slice of Kauri wood |
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| Inside an old Kauri stump |
Kai iwi Lakes
Not far from the forest and along the Kauri Coast on the West we stayed at Kai Iwi Lakes. These are three fresh water lakes that are stocked with trout (Kai iwi means ~plenty of food for the people~ in Maori).Here you can fish, swim, sail or water ski in safe, warm fresh water.
Ian and Jax
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| The driveway to Ian and Jacquie's is 1KM long! |
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| Part of the back garden |
Three more nights back with Ian and Jax before leaving NZ. A quiet night in on the first night resulted in many bottles of wine being drunk and the Karaoke machine being started!! Malc did a great rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody! Thankfully the neighbours live a few miles away……
Ian and Jac arranged a BBQ on the Sunday which was fab and everyone had a great time….it was once again nice to reacquainted with the neighbours we had met first time around.
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| Rourcas the cat |
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| Ian and Jac |
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| The four of us |
On our penultimate day in NZ we returned the faithful Wanda – newly cleaned and brushed up - to her rightful home – back to Papakura and Alison. This time we met Alison for the first time and related some of Wanda’s adventures. A huge thank you to Alison and John for their kind loan of the van!
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| Alison and Karen with Wanda |
Our final night with them was spent in town at a New Order concert in Auckland’s Vector Arena. New Order were a Manchester based band from the early 80s. We were probably the oldest people there! Concert was fab though. Before meeting up with Ian and Jackie we wandered the waterfront with its trendy bars and cafes and had a meal before walking the 20 minutes to the concert venue. How many cities in the world can you do that?
Finally, it was back to Auckland and off to Sydney for two days before leaving for South Africa. Unfortunately the poor Sydney summer struck once again and it poured all day. However there were two final highlights for us there – 1. Our BnB in Rozelle was dead opposite Adriano Zumbo’s ( famed Sydney chef) famous Patisserie. Beautiful breads pastries and savoury tarts and prefect coffee made ait a must for breakfast and 2. Meeting with an ex colleague of Malc’s Hilary – who moved over three years ago. We took the ferry across the harbour to Manly where we had a great night of natter and nostalgia.
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| Malc & Hilary |
Up very early on the last day to beat the Sydney traffic to catch the flight to Johannesburg (14 hours!!) and onto Cape Town (another 2). The end of our great Antipodean adventure…..How privileged we are to be able to do this.
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