Saturday 6th /Sunday 7th December : Tauranga and Rotorua There are some things that you do when travelling that are fairly normal, the sort of things you would do when back home……just because you live in a foreign country does not mean you have to tick off the tourist spots all the time. Lesley has been keen to visit 'Hobbitown', so we think that it would be good to see 'The Hobbit' film before we go. There is a screening in Tauranga and the Matinee is att...

As we roll into Mount Manganui near Tauranga on the Bay of Plenty, and park up in our allocated space in the holiday park, it's clear that this place is pretty popular with locals and tourists alike. There is not much van space between neighbours but that doesn't matter too much when you pull the curtains at night. Mount Manganui town is named after the hill of that name. It is 232 metres high and dominates the town, and is visible for many kilometres. It is ...

Saturday 30th November. A shout in our direction caught our attention. 'Hey you guys, where're ya headed?' 'Just into this……' 'Yup, I know you're going to the bar, I mean where on this road ya goin? We're farmers, see, and we don't see much of you sorts here'. 'East Cape, staying over tonight at Anuara Bay' 'Hey, that's sweet as, nice up there, y'all have a great time, right!' As so our introduction to the East Cape began, outside the Tolaga Bay Hotel,...

Have been delayed a couple of days posting this on account of having to spend time getting to grips with updating our property websites. I now know what a hyperlink is, and can do such things in the website editor! Our website designer has finally ditched us and doesn't reply to e-mails asking how to do this and that.......so it was in at the deep end as they say. To tie up the blog from Gisborne, you might like to know about a couple more quirky New Zealand th...

A woman has just walked past the house and asked if I was looking forward to the rain. Looking up at her from cleaning the van, I remarked that it depended where you came from. Frankly, we didn't come to New Zealand for the rain. But of course she being a local wanted her water tanks filled up from her roof. This is fairly common in semi rural areas, such as Wanui where we live, folks don't have a mains water supply, their water is held in two or three large ...