Taumatawhakatangitangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu

New Zealand’s longest place name is just awesome. It deserves going to just because of that alone. However we didn’t and nor can we say it either, despite many attempts.
We are however sitting under an absolute carpet of stars in a town called Russell in the Bay of Islands. This place is quite beautiful. It used to be the capital city of New Zealand until Auckland and then Wellington took over that role. Cloaked in history, primarily the signing of the Waitangi Agreement in 1852, we are surrounded by an amazing landscape.
The past 7 days have once again spun by. Our target was meet up with Steve and Jo on Friday to spend a few days in their seaside ‘Bach.’ (batch as we Brits would pronounce). We could not refuse the offer to have a true Kiwi style weekend in a house by the beach on the Coromandel Peninsula.
To get there however required a few days drive, albeit through a countryside that has never ceased to amaze us. As we passed back through the centre of the North Island in Taupo we stopped at the Huka Falls, for which we had managed to miss the turn a few weeks before. The equivalent of two Olympic swimming pools of water passes through this gorge per second and when combined with a ten-metre drop, the result is pretty spectacular.


The Huka Falls



On from there and Bugs had a wish granted when we finally hit the Zorb.
The Zorb is a 11 foot tall plastic ball which you can ride inside. They then add a dash of hot water, throw you in and roll you down a hill. A cross between a water slide and a rollercoaster. Hilarious! Drew picked the short straw and decided to be the accompanying adult- luckily it was sunny. By the time of our third go together, she had picked the courage to ‘GO SOLO!’ We haven’t heard the end of it since, now she has graduated to the Go Girl Daredevil Club.........









Zorbing..........................................................................How cool am i dad?!

We arrived at Pauanui early Friday evening, just after Steve and Jo, to find a bottle of fine red already opened. What followed was an incredibly chilled weekend when we drank wine, went to the beach, had lunch, drank wine, played mini-golf, had wine, went rock fishing, drank beer, had dinner and drank more wine. That was just Saturday.

Is this the most chilled out pastime ever?

As we left on Sunday, we visited Cathedral Cove and had a fab time swimming in the ocean. After we had bade farewell to our hosts we spent the night in Miranda, another cool town name, before arriving in Pakiri Beach for some serious horse riding! Mads and Geo ‘had talked themselves up’ massively ahead of the trek and were not amused when they were downgraded to the ‘incompetents’ and ‘nervous’class which included Lu, myself and Bugs, despite them having not ridden a horse for years. Great horses, with absolutely no doubt whether the rider or the horse, were in total control. Since then we have been aching in parts that we haven’t used a lot this trip.

Maddie- 'I love the beach!'

With only a week to go before we start heading for home, we have come to the Bay of Islands praying for some fine weather to chill out in.
Take care
Drew and Lu. x