Some rambles about our rambles: Kia Ora!

Hello from New Zealand! Apologies must be made for the lack of blogging, not our fault of course- WIFI in New Zealand it appears is a much valued gift that is more expensive than beer or BBQ’s. However, looking around at the scenery it is pretty apparent that if I lived here I wouldn’t be spending much time indoors hooked up to a computer either.

So here we are. Here is the small coastal town of Whatuwhiwhi, all the places here have amazing names that the locals snigger at when Matt and I try to pronounce them. We are currently joined by a very heavily pregnant cat, much to my delight and Matt’s horror, so…. How did we get here??

Day 1-3- Auckland

We spent 3 very cold but happy days in Auckland. It took us a while to get used to the temperature (a 34° difference!!) but it was dry and bright. We stayed at the very colourful BK hostel, my first experience of a hostel and it was very nice, if not a bit quiet. We even got an upgrade as a honeymoon treat :)

Our welcome to NZ breakfast- FRUIT!!

We spent our first day trying to fend off jetlag from the 13 hour flight by climbing Mount Eden. That sounds more spectacular than it actually is, it is more of a steep hill but the view from the top was definitely impressive.

Crater next to the Mountain.

Que the Kaiser Chiefs…’ Oh my gosh I cant believe it, I’ ve never been this far away from home’.

Auckland, like the rest of NZ is currently (and I get the feeling always) Rugby mad. And I mean it is everywhere. Every shop, restaurant and house it appears sports the All Blacks flag and flags of the adopted countries. The world cup doesn’t even start for another week.

Day 3 we picked up our camper (named 'The 3 Sisters' due to its graffiti of the Aussie rocks). Matt was very excited to be driving what he calls ‘automotive perfection’. I would say it has a rather dubious retro suspension, those of you familiar with jelly car might get an idea. But it is very nice and we are enjoying the camping lifestyle. Also we got our second honeymoon perk- a free bottle of NZ wine.

Day 4

We visited the rather cutely named Manly Beach. The first of many breathtakingly beautiful beaches. Luckily the weather has improved and we could even get away with t shirts and shorts! Hurrah. (My tan has already faded).

We then drove up to our campsite for the night in Orewa, a small town with yet another beautiful beach.

Day 5 and 6

Next stop on our trip was Whangari but on the way we stopped off at Mangurai beach,the beach had some nice walks and we spent the day chilling out.

The next day we went on at tree top canopy walk which was my first experience of walking through an actual jungle complete with odd creatures and of course all manner of creepy crawlies. The tree top canopy walk was very cool and allowed us to literally walk through the tree tops of the jungle, looking down at the river below.