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Aussieland & NZ Trip – Final Digest #10

Hello Everyone!

I know this post is a long time coming, but even though I have been back for over 2 months, I thought I should put an ending to this story. I left you off just as we were flying to the South Island of New Zealand. The south island is essentially BC on an island. We departed Auckland and about 2 hours later we arrived in Christchurch.

Christchurch is an interesting city; it has a small town feel but it is most likely the largest city on the southern island. However, that is not saying much considering the population of Toronto is significantly larger than the population of the entire South Island. We did not do a whole lot in Christchurch, well, mostly because there was not a whole lot to do in Christchurch. Continue reading “Aussieland & NZ Trip – Final Digest #10”

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Aussieland & NZ Trip – Digest #9

Hi all,

This will be a rather short one, I do not have a lot of time and the Internet here is really expensive. I believe I left you guys off when I was just about done in Cairns. Cairns is a nice city, very warm. However, I was getting a little bored there. We left for New Zealand on the 27th of November and arrived in Auckland (biggest city in NZ) around noon. The first thing I noticed was how green everything is. Australia was in its worst drought in over 30 years but NZ is flourishing! Again, we rented a car but we did not hesitate to leave the big city and head for Paihia.

Paihia is known as the gateway to the Bay of Islands. Consisting of 144 islands, the Bay is quite remarkable. We took an eight hour sailing trip through the islands making a stop at one of the bigger islands. Other then getting somewhat sun burnt, it was amazing. We also managed to see some bottle nose dolphins, the biggest of the dolphins, while we were out. We also saw a penguin swimming in the ocean. While we stopped at the island, the crew prepared lunch consisting of smoked chicken, roast beef, and fresh mussels (in fact they dived down while we were stopped to get them…). They tasted alright, but I could not get over how they looked…if you have seen one, you may know what I mean. Although, I do not expect Lili to get it. We left Paihia the next morning and made a six hour drive to Waitomo Caves. Continue reading “Aussieland & NZ Trip – Digest #9”