Day 44 Russell, Bay of Islands Quiet morning here in Russell with news of the earthquake in Christchurch dominating the news understandably, the terrestrial channels are showing nothing else as a National State of Emergency has been declared. There is a lot of talk in the streets too and even though we are hundreds of miles away there are many people who are on holiday here who either live in Christchurch or who have friends and relatives there which makes it ...

Day 43 Russell, Bay of Islands Well I was about to post about the wonderful day we have had and our close encounters with the dolphins but have just switched the TV on in our cottage and hear about the devastation in Christchurch after another earthquake. To think that only a few short weeks ago we were there and had we not decided to swap our trip here around and do the South Island first we would have be either in Christchurch now or certainly very close by...

Day 42 Whitianga to Russell What a difference a day makes, it's really raining hard today, the sea that yesterday was a deep turquoise and calm is now a charcoal grey and choppy. Hoping desperately that things will improve as we drive north. On the road by 9:15am as we have at least a 6 hour drive ahead of us. The rain stayed with us for a good couple of hours but stopped and it looked brighter when we were about half an hour from Auckland which raised our ...

Day 41 - Hot Water Beach and Coromandel Town A bit of a grey start to the day but as we were breakfasting with a fellow guest from Bern in Switzerland the skies began to clear, so inspite of the 35 min journey and some rather derogatory comments we had heard about the place we headed for Hot Water Beach. The beach itself is a long sandy cove with good surf although swimming is restricted to the area patrolled by the life guards as there are strong rip tides. ...

Day 40 - Mercury Bay, Whitianga, Coromandel Oh my we've been away for 40 days, I can't believe it. Well it's been a pretty active day again today. I managed to badly bruise my little toe yesterday evening when I was having a swim. There was a hidden rock underwater and I managed to kick it! Consequently with Bill's knee playing up after the climb yesterday and my toe giving me gip we decided not to walk too far today so hired a kayak from a dive shop in the town...