Rain and rainbows

December 5th, 2005 , 6:07

Well, today we are in Paihia getting ready to dive the Rainbow Warrior tomorrow. Hopefully go better than our Poor Knights dives.

To answer some questions:
Was Joe surprised? No, not really. With what we had to get for the trip he guessed New Zealand.

Does he like it? Is it good? Etc. Yep.

Any surprises left? Yep, he has no idea where we’ll be spending Christmas, his birthday, or new year’s eve. 🙂

Did we get photos of the baby penguins? Yep. Not very good, but we got a photo.

Have we seen penguins other than in aquariums? Yes. Little blue penguins on every boat trip. Cute.

Today we have seen loads – Drove from Tutukaka to Paihia today in the rain. It has rained off and on from drizzle to downpours all day. Bleugh. But we’ve had such lovely weather I guess we can’t complain too much.

On the way we stopped at a little place called Kawiti Glow-worm Caves. Family run and you get to walk through the cave then out through the forest. Pretty nifty and glow worms look good – like green stars. We also saw eels in the creek that runs through the cave. The guide tells you about her family, the cave, the history, it’s pretty nifty.

Reached Paihia and couldn’t quite check in so we walked around the town, sorted out the diving for tomorrow, got lunch, that sort of thing. Then sorted out our room. Another nice place. Then we headed out to drive to the Rainbow Warrior memorial. What you don’t get told is that the memorial is down a gravel road with no signposts and then you have to climb to get to it. It’s way up on the hill which is great for the views. And the rain held off until we were back in the car! So we climbed to that and had a look at where we’ll be diving tomorrow.

On the way back to Paihia we stopped at the Haruru falls which are quite pretty. It’s a kiwi reserve as well, but we weren’t lucky enough to see a kiwi.

I have uploaded some photos (only about 5) to flickr with the tag ‘Joe Kathleen trip NZ’. Or you can try this link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12819735@N00/sets/1514111/
Not sure that will work but give it a go!

Right off to dinner and various stuff before up far too early to dive the Rainbow Warrior!

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Beyond Auckland

December 3rd, 2005 , 5:29

I can now highly recommend Dolphin and Whale Safari out of Auckland – right next to the NZ Americas Cup sailing experience. They were great. Of course, we also ended up with a great day out so I may well be biased. We did however have a group of students on board and they weren’t too interested so that was a bit of a downer. But overall the trip went really well.

Just out of Auckland and we came across a pod of common dolphins that played around the boat. Wonderful. It helped that I grabbed a spot right on the bow. Greedy thing that I am. So watched them for a while then headed out looking for whales. And boy did we ever find them. Definitely saw Brydes and more common dolphins, but also saw plumes along the horizon that were possibly Fin whales. Not blue as we didn’t see any fluke. But the best thing ever was the feeding – dolphins, whales, gannets diving, the whole Blue Planet experience. And of course I couldn’t figure out the video on the digital camera and even forgot I was holding the stupid thing for a while. Oh well. It was wonderful.

So Joe and I are well sunburnt and very happy! Last night in Auckland and we went to the pub round the corner from our hotel and had a very nice meal and excellent drinks. All local booze so far and it has been very nice indeed.

Picked up the rental car this morning and off out of Auckland – once we finally found the highway. They don’t really believe in road signs. It was a beautiful drive up north and we are now in Tutukaka in a really great place called Malibu Mal’s. We have a whole suite to ourselves with kitchen and washer and everything. I’m wishing we were staying longer!

Tomorrow we are off diving. We’ve been to the dive centre to do all the paperwork so up early tomorrow and onto the boat. Poor Knights – which I keep being told is wonderful so we are looking forward to it.

Will update as we can and sometime will get some photos onto flickr. We’ve taken enough! We are checking e-mail, but may not be replying – any questions may get answered here!

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Working on the Second day

December 1st, 2005 , 20:57

Waiting for Joe to swallow a tablet – we’re off whale and dolphin spotting. So long boat trip.

Yesterday: Walked around the harbour area and looked at the cruises in the harbour/bays. Saw the dolphin and whale tour heading out and went and asked for info. We were thinking a short trip out but nope, they go out for most of the day and we’d just missed the boat. So we booked for today.

Then headed for the bus station and Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Experience. That was nifty – lots of penguins and even baby penguins (everyone say ‘awwwww’). We then walked back to Auckland stopping by a little restuarant/bar for a small lunch. Sat eating and looking over the bay – lovely. Walked along the waterfront and stopped to pick up some odds and ends then back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. First day in NZ and we’re sunburnt. 🙂 Weather is lovely – bright sunshine and about 22 degrees C. Lovely.

Orbit is nifty – we got there as the sun was going down. So lovely to sit and eat and watch Auckland light up below us. The food was indifferent, service excellent, and view fantastic.

The internet cafe is interesting. Rows of machine with people playing networked games. I think we’re the only ones on the internet – everyone else is playing World of Warcraft!

Don’t know when we’ll update again. Off tomorrow morning for other parts of NZ and I’m still keeping poor Joe guessing.

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