Saturday, March 22, 2008

Bay of Islands (December 16 - 18)

The 4 of us went up to the Bay of Islands and went on an overnight cruise on a converted car ferry called "The Rock." www.rocktheboat.co.nz



After a bevvy at the on board bar, we all took part in a shooting competition where we tried to nail a plastic duck being dragged behind the boat. No easy task, in fact Jenn and Karen were 2 of few people who actually hit it, and Kiwi went on to a tie-breaking final round with another girl named Karen.















Here's Karen looking pretty serious with that weapon. Next we tried our hand at snapper fishing, which was fairly unsuccessful, although Jodi did manage to catch us some more bait! After that we had a big buffet dinner and some more bevvies, then decided that it would be a great idea to night kayak into the bay we were parked in. At night there are phosphorescence in the water so the water glows when you paddle or fish swim near the surface...trippy








Donning wetsuits yet again the next day to go snorkelling, where we fed the fish raw mussel right out of our hands...apparently those little SOB's liked the taste of T's blood more than the mussel, and she was left with numerous tiny little fish mouth shaped bites





After the fish feed we stopped at one of the islands and hiked to the top for a fab view...






While we were snorkelling, the boat crew was free diving for sea urchin and mussels. We got to sample the raw sea urchin (sucked it off our hands) which is apparently a very expensive delicasy in Japan worth hundreds of dollars per kg. We also got to eat the mussels, both raw and cooked.









After the cruise we stayed the night in Pahia and found ourselves at the pub where we had a fantastic and very cheap dinner on the barbie followed by a "few" drinks. Only because we had 2 for 1 coupons of course, we couldn't pass up a deal like that! Oh look, there's Kiwi now with her 2, and apparently Jodi only needed 1...




Is that a long lost brother Jodi, or a future husband?!






Yes Jodi, its time to go...and so we did and on the drive home the next day we stopped at the world famous..er NZ famous Kawakawa public toilets. What an experience, even Thomas had to go...










It wasn't me, I swear!!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Bay of Plenty

Well, let's go back to December when Jenn and Karen were still here and continue where we left off from Taupo and Rotorua. We carried on to the Bay of Plenty where we stopped at countless beaches and stayed in Tauranga. This last leg of our trip was full of fun, sun, and scenery...



- At Ohope beach
- Jode and Jenn strollin with their NZ coffees, "flat white or long black ladies?
- A dead jelly on the beach, they were everywhere! Creepy
- Starlet taking a break






- Locals taking a break to watch the surf
- At another random beach along the way, all to ourselves
- The classic tourist Kiwi sign photo, yay!
- Amazing views of the Bay of Plenty coast line






- Us on the beach and Tawn and Jenn playing in the waves while Karen photographs







- We drove through Te Puke (its pronounced 'poo-key') but we pretended like we didn't know much to the chagrim of Karen
- Anyone for an 'F' to go?!!




- more pics from Te Puke where we got our "slice of happiness" at the kiwi orchard (some pictures on the blog before on the 'Karen's Vacation' post)






- More pics from Kiwi 360 on our very nerdy but highly enjoyable ride on the kiwi train! And Tawnya winning the maze race!!







- Another random bay



- Avocado tree!!
- Jenn surfing in Mount Maunganui (a little suburb in Tauranga)
- Having hokey pokey ice cream
- The crashing waves around the Mount, which we hiked to the top of...






Hiking the mount, we accidently took the hardest trail to the top, in jandals with purses. It nearly killed us (not many pics from the actual hike)...














but the view from the top was well worth it...






Jennie on top of Mount Maunganui with a para-glider-guy-thing in the background (they were everywhere)



Some random viewpoint looking over the entire Bay of Plenty