Tiki Tour! Feb 25- March 1

Hello! I'm back from the South Island Roadtrip with my friend Alison from the UK. Here are the highlights:

Days 1-4 I spent hanging out in Christchurch, I rented a car, walked around the city. Saw Catherdral Square, climbed the 109 stone steps to the top of the flower tower in the catherdral, went up the Lyttleton Gondola, and took a drive along a scenic trail to a beach. When Alison arrived on Friday we organized our route and took in a rugby match that night, Super 14 League - Wellington Hurricanes vs Cantebury Crusaders. Not many photos to share at this point as I had to buy a new camera in Christchurch, because my other camera had water damage from hot water beach in Coromandel. :(

Saturday Alison and I set off for the west coast of the south island, we drove across Aurthur's Pass to Greymouth. There is also a train that runs along this route, and it is one of the best/most spectaular train rides in the world. If I ever go back that will be on my to do list! We stopped in to see these really neat boulders that are just scattered in these hills. Must be left over from a glacier melt years before. Very strange to see all these massive rocks in the middle of farmland!

Greymouth was a funny little town, for a saturday afternoon... everything was closed! no shops open! Coming in to town as you can see from the photo above is a little dodgy... I'm not really a fan of sharing one lane bridges with trains. The traintracks run across the bridge, and you can't really see if trains are coming....
We arranged to go for a rafting trip in the morning, floating on innertubes down a river, and then into a glowworm cave.
That afternoon we took a little drive north along the west coast for some spectaular scenery up to Punakaiki- Pancake rocks. These are limestone rocks that are layered with shellfish remains, the stronger the year of the shellfish the stronger the rocks deposits... so as the ocean erodes at the rock, the softer layers get washed away and funky layered "pancake rocks" remain.

After checking out the Pancake rocks we went on a little tramp through the rainforest to the coast where we found a great little cove at the end! This was my favorite spot to take photos the whole trip!

Coromandel Pennisula!

This past weekend my friend Brittany and I took off to the
View Larger Map'>Coromandel Penninsula for a weekend of sightseeing and camping. Coromandel is south east of auckland on the other side of the harbour, and close to Great Barrier Island where I rang in the New Year.

This is a photo from a quick tramp at the top of the moutain range in the northern part of the penninsula, looking out over the west coast, and back toward the town of Coromandel. If Auckland were visable in the distance it would be in the top right of the photo.

Some bush on our tramp. Looking out to the Kennedy Bay & the Pacific Ocean on the east. Below is a photo of the rainforest.

We stayed the night in the northern end at a beachside campground in Waikawau.
This is a beach we found on Sunday on the drive to Whangapoua (pronounced fung-a-po-u-a )

Drove down the east coast along the Pacific to Hahei. We went on a tamp/snorkel/swim adventure. Hahei has fantastic
View Larger Map'>coves and bays. <-- Check out the link to follow along.

On the way to Gemstone Bay looking back to Wingmore Pass

Gemstone Bay, saw plenty of snapper in here, one big Grandpa one that was looking a little on the hungry side. We were followed by a school of snapper for about 20 mins.

Here we are checking out Stingray Bay, we attempted to go snorkeling here as well, but saw a stingray straightaway! So instead took some scenic photos on the whitesand beach and enjoyed the view!

Cathedral Cove! A popular destination for toursits and locals alike, and the film industry as well, and it's easy to see why. This place was beautiful! Well worth the hour tramp to get in.

Auckland Anniversary Weekend

A long weekend here in New Zealand :) Each city in NZ gets to have an anniversary long weekend during the summer months, last week was Wellington. This week is Aucksland's turn!

Friday night we said good bye to some lovely coworkers on a yacht in the harbour. We went for a sail under the harbour bridge and watched the fireworks from the water.

Saturday we took advantage of the great weather and enjoyed the sunshine at the Seafood Festival! Live music and lots of great kai!

Sunday was another day at the beach. Headed up to longbay enjoyed some sports and swimming. The water was great! :)

New Year Celebrations on GBI

Just back from a one week camping trip to Great Barrier Island off the coast of New Zealand. A stunning place with plenty of outdoor activities on the go. Had a great group of people who were keen for tramps, surfing, beach going and sightseeing. So glad to get out of Aucks for a full week and really see some kiwi summertime fun! Here's some highlight photos. :)

So this is us sailing past the Coromandel, on our ferry er.. Barge! It was a lovely day for a 4 hour boat ride, and just prior to this we saw a whale and lots of dolphins!

This is Medlands Campground at it's finest! Only a short walk to the beach, and a lovely cow field behind us! Above Camp Wilson is preparing a meal

Medlands Beach on a sunny afternoon :)

New Year's Day Tramp to the highest peak on Great Barrier Island. 4 hour roundtrip over mountain ridges in the mid day heat is not an easy feat! The view was spectacular!

The following evening we took a roadtrip to the hot springs with most of the gals from our group. It was a 30 minute walk through the forest and marshland to the natural hot water stream.

Here we are relaxing in the hot pools!

This is an afternoon relaxing on Claris Beach, beautiful white sand :)

Here are some of the guys going for a surf in what we later discovered to be shark infested waters! An actual shark breeding ground!

A snorkel stop, on stoney beach. Saw lots of pretty fish and a stringray!

On the last afternoon, we hiked to Rosalie Bay, a 2 hour mission uphill! (the return trip was just as tough!)

Happy Holidays from New Zealand!

My first kiwi Christmas was a success!

2 weeks ago the Christmas festivities began, when I spent the weekend with the Parkers down in Beachlands, the boys had a great time with their new kites!
Here I am hanging out with Liam (5) and Nathan (3) just after we finished reading our pirate stories!

Jump ahead to Christmas Day!!!

I Spent some time on the beach playing Rugby, football and floating in the Pacific Ocean out at Long Bay.

Then headed down to Devonport where I helped to prepare Christmas dinner with some friends. Didn't get to enjoy the goods though, as I had to head to work for a nightshift, but was looked after as we had a potluck with all the emergency department staff!

Glad I was able to have a webcam Christmas with everyone at home! :)

Here is a photo of our Christmas tree at my flat, followed by a New Zealand Pohutakawa tree, which is also known as the kiwi Christmas tree because it is in bloom during December.

Off to Great Barrier Island for a week of camping and ringing in the New Year!

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Parade in Auckland!

November has been slow, not much time between the nightshifts, but I made it out on Sunday afternoon for the Auckland Santa parade!