Our expanded stay in Whitianga wasn't as genious as we first thought because the weather didn't obey the weatherforecast. (Maybe you have won the battle, weather, but you haven't won the war). We took a detour on the way to Rotorua, so that we can see the Cathedral Cove which was recommended by some local people. The cove was very beautiful even though it was quite cloudy and the water wasn't as blue was shown on the pictures of the information sheets. We were ...

We had to say farewell to the "Endless Sommer Lodge" and moved on. We cried all the way to the "Bay of islands". It was a beutiful day and many tourists travelled to "Paihia" to see the famous bay as well. We took the ferry to Russel, which is a really idyllic place with some great holiday houses. We asked for direction to get to the beach and shuffled to the otherside of this half island. One of us in shoes and the other in flip-flo...

From Auckland to Paradise We finally left Auckland with our rental car. Sitting on the right side of the car and driviing on the left hand side of the road was quite a challenge. On the first crossroad where we had to turn, I activated the sweepers instead of the indicator. We drove up north on Hoghway 1. We first thought that it is a regular highway with 2-3 lanes all the way, but after a few houres the highway lost a few lanes and we ended up on the only lane...

After approximatly 30 hours filled with eating, sitting, watching films and trying to sleep, we finally arrived in Auckland. It may sound easy but there were some difficulties. The biggest was trying to sleep while in a sitting possition without getting your neck sore. We'll try to master this skill on our flight back home. The second challange was to eat with your arms close to your body, so that you won't torture your neighboor's arms with your elbows. On our ...