Bob & Janette's Travel Adventures

FOOTNOTE:
Ok you guys are going to tell me that a footnote should be at the foot of the page....Wrong! This is Bob & Janette's world so if we chose to put it at the top of the page so be it.

Sadly Janette's Step-Father, Dennis, passed away a week before our due departure date so Jan flew out early ahead of me to support her Mum and help with arrangements.

Auckland - Taupo - Rotorua - Auckland

The flight to Auckland was quite uneventful, however during the landing I commented to Jan's daughter Samantha that I would only give the captain a 5/10 for the landing. Well after getting through customs and clearing the arrivals lounge we were met by Jan & her future brother-in law Glenn. It wasn't until then that I realized how windy it was. I put my bags down by the rear of the car and they literally took off down the footpath. In hindsight the Captain did a fantastic job of getting us on the ground safely. No bloody wonder the KIWIs won the America's Cup with all that wind!!!

We went to Glenn's place for the night as our 1am arrival time was not conducive for traveling far. Well our first night at Glenn's turned out to be a very long night. I knew we should have brought more duty free! Duty free dispatched, Glenn's son remember the bottle of port that he has tucked away. Shortly later I needed tucking away.

This was my first trip to NZd as a tourist so Jan and I took off on a little tour. Firstly down to Hamilton to meet Uncle Alec. A finer man you have never met. We stayed with uncle overnight and then headed off to Lake Taupo. Unfortunately the wind, rain, sleet and snow followed us from Auckland so Taupo was a very brief stop over before heading up to Rotorua (Stinkorua). Here we found ourselves a nice "backpackers" before heading out to check out the mud pools and then on to a few drinks and dinner.

Next morning it was off again with a stop off at Off Road NZd. Here you can do all sorts off off-road type activities and Jan & I both being "petrol heads" decided to go the sprint cars. What a HOOT!. Full on, totally out of control racing on a track. First Jan with me as her passenger and then me behind the wheel. Naturally we had discussions later as to who was the better driver. We finally agreed that we are both pretty darn good drivers and headed back into Hamilton to say goodbye to Uncle Alex before heading up to Whangarei.

Whangarei

Whangarei is a world famous port for traveling yachties and it is also famous as the birth place of Janette. First stop was to Jan's Mum's, Margaret, who lives on a farm a few kilometers out of town at Parua Bay. Here I got to play farmer Bob and spent some time on the tractor slashing the paddocks while Jan practiced her driving skills once again, this time on a quad bike. We got quite a bit of work done but by the same time it was all fun.

Jan's Sister Caro, also lives on the outskirts of Whangarei on a few acres to die for. Surrounded by "bush" as they call it in NZd, we Aussies would refer to it as prime rainforest. Somehow we found more duty free for our first night with Caro and not sure how those brain cells survived.

The rest of our time in NZd was spent catching up with friends and family. New Years Eve we went to Tutakaka and spent the night with Tony & Caroline. My first true Hungi and what an occasion. Those bloody Kiwis certainly know how to party. After we recovered from the Hungi we headed out to Patau South to spend a few days at Margaret's 'batch" (Kiwi term for a beach house).

Patau South is a sleepy little place on the mouth of a river which just happens to be loaded with cockles and pipis. We only needed a few minutes in the water to harvest a bucket full of the delicacies and this soon became an afternoon ritual. Yummmmm. I was spoilt one day when Margaret said "get your gear, your going fishing". To my surprise she had arranged a fishing trip for me with one of her neighbors. Never before have I been in fishing heaven like I was that afternoon. Only fifteen minutes from the shore and we were catching snapper one after another. Thanks Margaret for arranging a very memorable afternoon.

All in all the trip was a great opportunity for me to meet Jan's family . It was just the right mix of touristy stuff and family get togethers to make an excellent holiday.

Click on map to enlarge

If you get the chance to go and see NZd, do it.  The scenery  is magnificent and the KIWIs are a damn friendly bunch.