A day out today, first stop Blue Springs, a natural spring, the water from which has a high optical purity which is why it looks blue & is so clear. It was clear, but perhaps because it was a dull day it didn't look too blue! The water has a temperature of 11oC all year round, and it takes 50-100 years to trickle down from the mountains (yet it can fill a 25m pool in 12 minutes) I then headed off to Rotorua. As I drove into the town I went past a park &...

Lazy day today watching house of cards, reading photography books (prob should have done that before taking 2000 crap photos of mountains & lakes) & eating pizza with the boy (and Lucy the cat)

I'd planned on having a lazy day today - I am on holiday after all! However when Andys alarm went off at 7.30 the sun was shining so I decided to head off to the coast I drove along straight roads surrounded by fields pretty much until I hit the corrandal forest. Here the roads started to twist and went through tropical forests. It might have been like this in the Caitlins but it was dark and raining then. Today it was sunny and bright and was a nice drive. My...

It was a bright and sunny day in Paihia which is a sea side town, and out motel looked right onto the beach. However, was no time to sit & enjoy the view, we were off on a boat tour where we were promised sightings of dolphins & possibly seals and whales too! We were also promised waves and rain as it was forecast to get stormy later The boat tour took us round the bay of islands. Altogether there are 140 different islands, many formed by volcanic erupt...

While Andy went off to the airport I did some washing & planned our next adventure. He has a day off so we're going to away for a night After some brunch and saying goodbye to Lucy cat we were on our way north. It had been a sunny day in Hamilton & the sun continued to shine as we made our way to Auckland. We decided to swap the hire car from the budget tin can I'd chosen to a focus which wouldn't blow over in the winds forecast for later We the got ca...