Wellington

Wellington

Oooh nice city, more of a relaxed atmosphere than Auckland, they have an airport in the city centre, you can see Aeroplanes landing and taking off just 50 yards away from you, and electric buses run through the city, they run on overhead cables like tram’s… pretty smart! There is also a very large harbour full of sailboats, yacht’s, speedboats, ships, and ferries. We drove up to Hawkins Hill for our breakfast, whilst admiring the view of the whole city and the ocean. The scenery is beautiful, with plenty to see and do.

Lord Of The Rings

The Lord Of The Rings

Well before heading to Wellington we wanted to see a few Lord of The Rings Set Locations, we are both great lovers of the Film, but we heard people even dress up as Elf’s when they go around these locations!

First off was ‘The Paths of the Dead’ ooooooh! Cool and Creepy, it was roughly an hour’s hike to get there, and then the path gets too rough and narrow, you can’t get there. It’s been over 10 years since it was filmed but it’s pretty much the same and definitely worth it for anyone who has seen Lord of the Rings… ‘I feel no death’

Lothlorien; (which was in two locations) we couldn’t find much here, you can imagine where it was filmed but not as eye-opening as the first location we sent to.

Riverndell; now this was where a lot of Filming took place, but it’s so small! It’s like a miniature Forest, but there was also the river which we could remember from the scene where Frodo is being rushed to Rivendell

Isengard;

was just a park, nothing spectacular here

Helms Deep;

Another Park, no resemblance of the Film here, sorry folks!

Hastings to Ngawi

Hastings to Ngawi

First things first… find an internet connection and check the Football Scores… yes! Chelsea 4 – 0 Bolton

Then we got back on to Highway 2 again, all the way to Waipukurau, then though Dannevirke which seems to be a VIKING town, (very strange) past Woodville, Pahiatua and Masterton, and followed the Pirinoa road through Martinborough until we got to the Aorangi Forest Park, we followed the coastal road all the way to Ngawi, the furthest point without entering private property, this took us to the Lighthouse, we climbed the steps (253 of them) to reach the top, which had a stunning view, we then went to the fresh water pool, which runs across the road, then into the sea, best water I have ever tasted! Then we saw the seals in their nesting area, at least 15 of them were sunbathing on the rocks, we then went over to a small camping area until the next day.

Gisborne to Hastings

Gisborne to Hastings

We have decided to make our way down south, first the plan was to go the rere falls before the drive, but we ended up at the hot springs in Morere! Oops, so we carried on with the journey and went down through Nuhaka, on to Wairoa, Putorino, Tutira, then we got to Napier, by this time it was evening so we wanted somewhere to stay for the night, but unfortunately camping wasn’t allowed in the beach car parks, so we went to Te Awanga near Hastings.

The Journey Continues...

The Journey Continues…. Gisborne here we come

It’s a SIX hour long journey from Aucks, so we though we would stop half way for a swim in the sea, and as Mikko finally got his Surfboards through Customs he could go for a surf! The scenery was AMAZIMG! The main roads are totally different to the U.K, one minute your going through a seriously cool town! And then next its countryside, hills with over a hundred cows on them, then mountains and huge rivers, even waterfalls flow down the cliffs beside the roads and sometimes onto the roads, then was the huge gorge! So so high! And took us over 2 hours to get through.and st started getting dark, no phone signal, no roadside assistance, or pay phones, no traffic and no radio signal in the van! Ha little scary but we made it!!

Pick-A-Part

Pick – A - Part

Next on the list was ‘Pick-A-Part’ we needed a few things for the car and we were told this was the best place to go! They weren’t wrong… it’s amazing! It’s like a massive car park/scrap yard, $2 entry and you can get anything you want from the cars and vans lol, anything! You just have to take your own tools and get to work!

Orewa

Orewa

At last we were away from the city. We are both beach bums at heart, so it was nice to get away from the busy Capital of N.Z, but as soon as we got there it rained for 3 days! Pfffft! Just our luck.

Well as bad luck seems to happen in three’s….no.1 was the gear box, then Mikko’s flip flops broke as we ran to the supermarket, then later that evening my engagement ring broke, but it can be fixed… I just need to send it back to the U.K :)

But at least with all the rain and wind the temperature was still warm! So we still went swimming in the sea and then jumped in the hot tub at the hotel! Lovely! 

Auckland City

Auckland City

Well, the gear box broke…. :( a lovely Kiwi lady directed us to Super Cheap Auto, we came out of the shop and the reverse wouldn’t work! Eek! So we took it to the garage in Albany and went to Nomads Backpackers in the city and decided to drown our sorrows and get drunk! What a good night we had! Ha Ha! But the next day then found out the gearbox the mechanic ordered didn’t fit, so sadly we had to wait a few more days for 2 more gearbox’s to arrive at the garage, so we were stuck in the city, and all over the news was ‘the biggest storm ever’ was approaching N.Z, well at least we were on the 6^th floor to see it (we thought) but it never happened, we got all excited but all we got were two days of light rain and winds boooooooo! All that hype over nothing! Anyway six  days had gone by and we still hadn’t got the van back, 3 gearbox’s ordered and none fit! So the last gearbox he could get was in Wellington and he was 99.9% sure it would fit but….it would take two days to arrive, so obviously we had our doubts it wouldn’t fit and decided to get out of Auckland for the weekend and head to a hotel near the beach for some relaxation as it was also the Big Day Out -‘new metal’ mini festival.

Shakespeare Regional Park

Shakespeare Regional Park

 

We drove from Long bay to Silverdale, on the east coast and headed towards Shakespeare Regional Park, oh the views were unbelievable! and the choices of bays were epic! Everywhere you looked there was another beach, either side of the main road, the houses were beautiful and most of them had their own entrance to the ocean….with their own speedboats or sailboats waiting, we stayed here for  the weekend and made the most of life :-)

Everywhere we looked the scenery was beautiful, the houses, the ocean, the beaches, and countryside, so we decided to camp here for the weekend, and headed straight for the sea for a swim.

The only way i can explain is by photos....

Click On Me :-)

Bertie Blue

 

Bertie The Blue Ford Econovan :)

Well its took some time to decide on a van, but eventually we bought one, and what a beauty it is, and now its time to start our travels...

Mileage clock at the start of our Journey

Beautful Bertie Blue!

 

Snowplanet --> http://www.snowplanet.co.nz/

Silverdale --> Snowboadrding

Oh my god... SNOWPLANET! -The prefect place to learn snowboarding, it's a big indoor one, and i had the perfect tutor...Mikko!
Ive been waiting for this opportunity to Snowboard since being a kid! So of course i was a little excited!
Ok.... So, i got all my gear and took to the slopes.... holding Mikko's hand (so i didnt fall over) haha. The first task (which seemed impossible) was attaching my boots to the board.. sitting down then trying to stand up! it was a MISSION to begin with, but i got the hang of it :)
After being shown how to stand and move on the board and different ways of breaking, i was then on my own! I even went to the very top, what an amzing feeling, and it just bacame natural, Mikko said i picked it up very quick, and seemed proud! :-P I cant wait to go to the mountains now! but i'll have to wait til winter, in the meantime i'll try improving my surfing skills!
"Snowboarding is the Don's!! It's the best thing i've done so far!!......I'm Living the dream!"

Long Bay & Granny Bay

Well it was time to see the ocean, not much of a surf spot but the surroundings were pretty amazing, we walked along Long Bay.. then up to the coastal walks on to Granny's Bay (yup Granny's Bay) which had stunning views, then we decided to walk back to Long Bay as we couldnt resist a swim in the sea!!

Auckland & Sky Tower ---> www.skycityauckland.co.nz

Auckland - the epic city of NZ!

First thing i noticed..was the Christmas lights - 8th January the shops and streets are still the Christmas Vibe, weird when its 28 degrees C outside, you cant really imagine Santa on his sleigh, with his reindeer's, i think they really love Christmas over here.
Next was the Pedestrian Crossing...Unusual, funny but practical! OK, so you press the button, your waiting for traffic to stop, then...Boom goes the sound, and the green man does the moon walk! (yes the moon walk) for 5-10 seconds, then... there's a 20 second countdown timer for everyone to cross the road..asap!
OK, not the most exciting thing, but the SKY TOWER was! You get in the lift, which is all glass, so you can see below you, and you can see the view of Auckland and as far as the eye can see...its amazing,..so, we got to the first view point...and what a view it was! 360 degree! then we wanted higher, got in the lift...and went to the top view point, you can feel your ears pop, but it doesn't bother you. We stood 220 metres high! the view was unreal, you could see everything! There's even a glass floor! which is a little scary at first but its just absolutely unreal!
Then after all this excitement and the 28-30 degree heat we went to the bar..had a few jugs of lovely kiwi beer and went home for a good earned rest.

Albany, North Shore

Albany...What a beautiful place! Surrounded by forest and countryside, but also has shopping malls and bars, we have been staying at a friends home in Point Ridge, we couldnt beleive our eyes... its perfect. 
So, we made the most of it... 6am walks taking in the views, then straight to the outdoor swimming pool and hot tub, if your feeling a little more energetic there is a gym too! Or you could just relax on the sun loungers or have a BBQ with the neighbours!