Bees!

Next door's bees escaped and swarmed in our garden this week. Craig from next door got suited up and came to rescue us!

Auckland and the flight home

Our flight back from Vanuatu landed just before midday and we had a five hour wait for the flight to Wanganui so decided to take the bus into Auckland to have a quick look around. We were impressed. After the 'wild west' feel you get from towns like Wanganui, Auckland was at last what we would recognise as a city. We hope to go back for longer perhaps in January, but this time we just had time to visit the waterfront, where a huge cruise ship was docked, and to enjoy lunch in the sunshine.

Then, were treated to some lovely views of the 3 large mountains of North Island on the flight back to Wanganui.

This is Tongariro I think

And this is Ruapehu

Vanuatu

Well, first impressions were not that good, but I think it's safe to say that, halfway through the week, we are warming to the place. 

Port Vila, the capital, is not a pretty town, but the coastline is beautiful so the potential is there. Food is expensive to buy and eating out is equally so, yet there is a sense of poverty everywhere. We hired a car one day and drove around the Island hoping to find a beach to explore. Unfortunately, there is a habit of selling off portions of the coastline to private owners, and other portions are sold along with building plots for holiday homes. This means that if beaches ARE available to tourists, you have to pay to use them. Such a shame. Andy tells me this is to do with French colonialism, so he will have to add details later to explain. Still, we are lucky in that our resort has its own short stretch of coastline for us to enjoy, along with a lovely pool.

Yesterday we took a tour to a local river and hired kayaks. A team of 3 guides took a group of 12 of us on a 7km trip along the Rentapao river. The scenery changed from a narrow river winding through tropical rainforest to a wide and beautiful river passing through the mangrove lagoon areas to the coast. Really enjoyed the trip. I didn't find kayaking at all strenuous. This may have had something to do with the fact that I was in a 2 man kayak with one of the guides? The Luksza family, who have first-hand experience of my rowing skills, will appreciate this! At the end of the trip we were invited to use a rope swing to launch ourselves into the river for a swim. I decided to be the official photographer, so unfortunately had to miss out on the swing. Still, I have a picture of Andy in action which I will add to the blog when we get back to New Zealand and I can download the pictures.

I can't really believe it, but I counted up today, and it is only 8 weeks until Paul and Joe arrive and 9 weeks for the Lewises. Really looking forward to seeing them all. However, that means that it's just over 9 weeks until Christmas, so this is a heads up to you all!

View from our room

A custard apple (I think) which we found in the fruit market. Very strange, but quite tasty!

9th October

Getting ready for Vanuatu on Sunday.

Feeling very rich, but actually this is worth about £6.50!

Taupo

Last weekend we drove to the centre of North Island to stay in Taupo, a town on the edge of the lake of the same name. Lake Taupo is beautiful and vast, being about 160km around. Apparently there is an annual cycle race around the lake, with some competitors going around several times - mad or what? We stayed in a very nice bed and breakfast, next door to a pub called the mole and chicken, which did excellent meals - another bad weekend for the diet!

The weather on Saturday was iffy, but we managed to visit the Huka falls, the craters of the moon - an area of bubbling mud pools and steaming geothermal landscape - and had a dip in the thermal baths between showers. Sunday was a much better day and we went on a fishing trip on the lake with our B&B host. Lake Taupo is only stocked with trout, both brown and rainbow, and Andy and I managed to catch 8 rainbows between us. We were very pleased with our efforts. We put all the fish back, mainly because trout is a pretty dismal fish to eat, but a good day, we enjoyed it very much. On the way home we got some lovely views of Mount Tongariro (I think, could be Mount Ngauruhoe) with snow on the peak.

We think we will stay around Wanganui next weekend, as the following week we are going to the pacific island of Vanuatu for a little holiday!

Huka Falls

Lake Taupo 

A snow-covered peak!

23rd September 2013

It's Monday, and Andy has just finished a weekend on call. We are both glad it's over as now we can get on with our travels. Heading into the centre of North Island, to Lake Taupo on Friday and we are looking forward to it. 

The whole of New Zealand has been abuzz for the last couple of weeks with the Americas cup, being held in San Francisco Bay at the moment. We have been caught up in it all, despite not knowing a thing about sailing. I think I know what tacking is, and I'm learning what a jibe is, but what the heck is a 'code zero'? New zealand have been doing really well, but after leading by 8 races to 1 last week, the USA won on saturday and then both of today's races bringing the score to 8-5. New Zealand need only one more race to win and I really hope that they do it, even if just to get something else on the news!

We are settling down to life here, though I must admit I find things a bit strange. Had expected it to be just like home but on the other side of the world. Not so! Andy and I went to the pub the other day and the landlady had the nerve to tell me that kiwis think that the UK is a bit backward! This because we didn't pay for 2 beers with a credit card! However, I did find an area where the UK could learn a thing or two. Look at the registration plate we could get if we lived here -

Or even this-

Wanganui races and Bushy park

As we've  had a busy couple of weeks, we decided to spend this weekend in and around Wanganui. It wasn't a bad day on Saturday, so we decided to take a look at Wanganui races, the first race meeting since we arrived. The race track is a short walk from our house, and we could hear the loudspeakers from our garden, so we donned boots and macs - just in case, and walked over to the race track. Unlike race meetings in the UK, there was no charge for admission. I guess they think they will make their money on the cash you spend on food and drink whilst you are there, they obviously don't know Andy at all well! No money was spent on refreshments, but we did manage to lose about $20 (£10) betting on the horses, so I suppose that's something.

Another nice day on Sunday so we drove out to Bushy park, an old New Zealand homestead and grounds which have been left as the landscape was when the Europeans first landed. Walks here are described as bush walks, and we saw many native trees and some birds. apparently they have kiwis there but we weren't lucky enough to see them, nocturnal we understand. Only seen a stuffed kiwi so far!

Our horse was 5th in this race, about the best we did all day!

I think this is called a Ponga - a rather beautiful tree fern. The emblem of New Zealand is the silver fern and that's a Ponga too.