Russell & Bay of Islands

We drove up to Bay of Islands area of New Zealand and took a car ferry across to Russell.
It is a beautiful and historic area that is surrounded by stunning beaches.

Since it's Sunday, we attended service at New Zealand's oldest church where the minister also happened to be an old Maori woman.  She said prayers in English and in Maori as well - it was a very moving experience.

We spent the rest of the morning exploring Russell with its historic buildings and little shops.
There is also a lovely beach right behind our campground called 'Long Beach' where we spent the rest of our day.  Seems like the days are going by so fast lately and we are hardly doing anything at all :)

Bad hair day in Russell

Exploring the coastline

This is the view from the main street of Russell

Long Beach in Russell.  We actually saw a penguin on this beach and found out that there are 3 species of penguins that live in New Zealand.

G'Bye Australia, Hello New Zealand

Due to the worsening weather conditions and flooded roads, we decided to head back to Sydney and catch the next flight back to New Zealand.  In Auckland we got another camper van and headed north to Bay of Islands area.

We spent 1 night in Whangarei again and decided to go to Ocean Beach the next morning.  Ocean Beach was fantastic, maybe only 10-15 other people were there.  In the afternoon we drove up to the Tutukaka coast where each side road takes you to a more incredible beach than the next.  We spent one night in Tutukaka and spent the next day in Whale's Bay, where we hiked a few beaches over to a cove that we had to ourselves all day.  We had a private beach for the day.  And it was incredible.

Dee enjoying the views at Coffs Harbour Australia

We visited a wildlife park (not a zoo :) before we left Australia and saw some kangaroos, koala bears, emus and tasmanian devils.

Our new campervan in New Zealand.  We came in search of the sun so it is very fitting that our van is called "Children of the Sun".

One of the beautiful views of New Zealand beaches.

Beautiful beach, beautiful weather, not a soul in sight. 

We spent an afternoon at this beach that had the most fantastic warm water.

Our private beach at Whale's Bay

Woolley's Bay Beach

Goat Island Marine Reserve.  We rented wetsuits & snorkel gear and went snorkelling here.  The water was quite cold but the underwater scenery was worth it.

View of Woolley's Bay from Whale Bay 

Whale Bay 

We climbed over those rocks in search of our private beach

Our private beach

The lady that took this picture forgot the scenery

Whangarei, Sydney, Bondi Beach & Nambucca Head

We arrived in Sydney with a bit of a delay.  Our airport bus in Auckland never showed up and our plane was delayed 2 hours.  Then we spent another 2.5 hours circling downtown Sydney trying to get to our hotel that was on a tricky one way street.  But, we were there at last.

The next morning we climbed to the top of Sydney Harbour bridge, which is quite a serious undertaking.
Before they let us step a foot on the bridge, we had to take a breathalyzer test, go on a simulator, go through a metal detector and got about 1 hour instruction on how all of our gear works.  The whole experience took 3.5 hours and it was quite nice.  The views were incredible but unfortunately we weren't allowed to take cameras, so I've got no pictures to post.  We did get a group photo from the top though.

We also spent a night in Bondi Beach, which is 20-30 minutes outside of downtown Sydney.  But at that point it started raining and it hasn't stopped since.  We drove up to Nambucca Head, which is very close to Coffs Harbour.  There are some beautiful beaches in this area but the darn rain just wont stop!  Apparently it has been raining so much in Australia that parts of south east Queensland are completely flooded and people had to evacuate their homes.  The weather forecast says rain, rain & more rain.

Whangarei Falls in New Zealand

Whangarei Falls

Bondi Beach

Kangaroos in someone's backyard

 Beach at Nambucca Head

Nambucca Head

Waitomo Caves, Auckland, Taupo & Tongarirro Crossing

Dee's here!  It's been a busy few days so I'm just posting some pictures of us in Auckland, Huka Falls and the 6 hour hike we did to cross Mount Tongariro.

Day 6 - Ohakune & Tongariro National Park

    I am on my way to meet Dee in Auckland but to make the drive more bearable I decided to stop in Ohakune to do some hiking & to camp.

    I went into Tongariro National Park and hiked to see Waitonga Falls.  There were some incredible views of  Mt Ruapehu, which is the highest mountain in Tongariro at 2797m.

Day 5 - Cook Strait Crossing

    What a day.  I took a water taxi back to Marahau in the morning and I felt so unwell - the ground didn't stop swaying until well after I was on dry land.

    I then drove to Picton to take the ferry across the Cook Strait to Wellington.

But I got lost along the way and went through the same RIDE program twice.

The first time the cop believed me that I wasn't drinking.  The second time he made me take a breathalyzer.

    When I finally found the ferry, I told the guys at checkin that I absolutely did not want to reverse.  I think they relayed the message because when I got in line to board the boat the first thing the guy asked me to do was back up.  We all had a good laugh at my expense.


    Otherwise, Cook Strait crossing went without a hitch.  Well...sort of.  The ferry broke down and we were delayed by 1.5 hours.  But the chief engineer of a New Zealand Navy warship sat beside me and kept me entertained the entire time. 

Some more pictures of paradise...