Land of the long white cloud !!

Wooo Hoooo

In fact the cloud is so long it has covered the North island for the past week, all I have seen is low cloud, drizzle and gail winds.. fantastic..I can get this in Whitstable, no trouble.. The weather is so debilitating.. it really can make or break a day... Unfortunately it has broken a lot of days here, which means we have been continuing with our extensive wine tasting hobby of trying as many New Zealand wines as possible..

Father and son getting some air !!

So what else have we been up to !!  Well we left Rotorua and headed North through countryside which looked like Yorkshire, moors and hills, and rocky outcrops, and horsed it straight through Auckland where we met some traffic... yikes ... but no trouble for Chief Brian... it was all moving on a 4 laned motorway.. and decided to pitch at a town called Orewa, a seaside resort with the pitch right on the beach...
It was lovely but blowing a gail, fantastic for all the kitesurfers and windsurfers who were out.. we played on the beach for ages.. watching a kitesurfing father tow his son behind him on a boogie board...That night the wind really got up and our camper was rocked to sleep ...

Yep , another beach .

Woke the following day to grey sky and wind and rain.. decided to take the scenic route up to the bay of islands... couldn't really see much as the visibility was awful.. we stopped at Manghawi heads to watch a brilliant race, of two guys in a blow up dinghy with an engine on the back, they race around markers, but have to crash over huge waves... it was very exciting and lots of capsizing and noise and danger .. it is so windy we could hardly stand up..
On to Whangarei a town in a basin with sleek yachts lining the harbour walls, a pretty town, but bugger all to do !! we walked the boardwalk even visited the clock museum and art gallery... we do everything we are told to do in guide books and tourist information.... ho hum.. onto Paihia... It is like a ghost town ... more wine I suppose..

up yours weather !!

We stayed on another site on the beach , this is where the very famous treaty was signed between the Maori and the English.. however , one was written in Maori, and one in English... it appears they were slightly different, and the English one seemed to allow land to be free in the South Island !! oops .. This has caused many factions over the years with the Maori people ...( can't understand it myself) No wonder they bulge their eyes out ..

Rib boat racing

Whoa ....

It has been a long drive up here to see the bay of islands.. Not only can I not see an Island, I can not even see the Bay, what a pity... we took a small car ferry over to Russell, which I am sure in sunshine is idyllic... in drizzle it is miserable.. we found a lovely site on a headland apparantely overlooking a bay..We put on all our wet weather gear and headed into town.. It is very pretty, small coves with sandy beaches, yachts bobbing about in harbours waiting for owners who seldom come, (did you know 80% of yachts never leave the harbour ) shiplapped bungalows with ornate verandas.,. it is very lovely, peering through your baseball cap and rain splattered sunglasses ...we splashed around the quaint town and found a lovely restaurant overlooking the jetty in the harbour, it had laid back charm, cool sounds being played and plenty of wine ......

Bay of rain, I mean islands .

'bingo'..we staggered home and I challenged Brian to an aggressive game of dominoes whilst listening to Bread on the Ipod in memory of dad !! Brian beat me by one point, so I drew all over his arms with the scoring biro.. which he is still trying to wash off... after pulling faces at each other for an hour we ended up watching Moulin Rouge drinking more wine and waiting for Mum to get up with kids.. as it was Christmas cake making day.. and boy did it sound messy !!!

Feeling very grey .. like the sky !!

We both felt a little fragile the following morning and even more low when we peered out of the window to more pouring rain... the weather forecast said it would be like this for 4 more days so reluctantly we decided to head south to Auckland ready for our departure from this country... It rained the whole way south , we pulled in to Takapuna a lovely site right on the beach with loads of surfers and kite surfers on the water.. if only we could see them !!

Russell in the rain.

We caught the passenger ferry into Auckland the following day to wander around and get our South America, Rough Guide... we have been listening to the Spanish CD in the car , and quite frankly should have no problems whatsoever !! both entirely fluent in ordering " 2 coffees with milk, a bottle of red wine and a glass of water , please " ... what more does one want..
New Zealand has always been on our bucket list, we have really enjoyed the wonderful hosts who are so friendly, the simply breathtaking scenery, the amazing wildlife, and safe healthy living, it has been a real pity about the weather, and although that tends to 'cloud' ones thoughts on a country, we have really enjoyed 'the land of the long white cloud '  ... Kia Ora .. lets see what South America has to offer .. AAARRRIIBBAAA..xxxxxxxxxxx

Auckland.