Still catching up!!
We have just had a great weekend, our friends Terry and Jenny flew in from Brisbane for the weekend, hired a car and took us to see some of their favourite places in and around Melbourne. Those of you who have been paying attention will know that we met Terry and Jenny on the Island Princess during our Alaskan cruise in August, we got on really well and it was great to catch up with them again and enjoy Melbourne together. Continue reading Melbourne 2
We left Napier on Monday and took Highway 2 south to Wellington, capital of New Zealand. We had quite a lot of ground to cover and the car had to be returned to Hertz by 17.00 so we didn’t have much time to spare but several people had recommended the Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre and Kiwi Sanctuary so we planned to stop there en route. Highway 2 follows the line of the Ruahine Range so as we drove across the plains of the Hawkes Bay region through wine territory and later through farmland we could see the mountains rising west of our route, some still had snow on them so they were quite a sight. We stopped for a break in Dannevirke and found a lovely café in a converted bank where coffee and cakes set us up for the rest of our drive. Next stop was the wildlife centre, we figured we could spare an hour there if we were going to reach Wellington on time. Continue reading Wellington
Our first stop on our NZ road trip was Russell in the Bay of Islands, 250km north of Auckland. The drive up was really easy, we took the motorway part of the way then peeled off on the east coast road which wound through the hills and along the coast passing little bays and inlets. It was cloudy when we left and we had some heavy rain on the motorway but it cleared through and by the time we reached Russell it was blustery but mainly dry. Continue reading Russell
We landed in Auckland late on Saturday afternoon, the temperature was about 16 degrees and we felt rather under dressed having left Fiji in shorts and t-shirts; we had to decide between being over-dressed leaving Matamanoa and under-dressed arriving in NZ and went for the second option. No problem though, there was a driver waiting for us complete with all the paper work for our time in NZ, hotel bookings, car hire details, road atlas and guide book. A 30-minute drive took us to the Sebel Hotel on Viaduct Harbour, a new marina built to support the Americas cup race. We checked in, cheered when we found a washing machine and tumble dryer in our suite, changed into long trousers and headed out to explore. Continue reading Auckland
We arrived at Hilo airport at the south end of the island, picked up our hire car and drove approx. 30 miles to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It was an easy ride through residential suburbs and pleasant forest; the road climbed gently but there was nothing to suggest that we were driving up a live, and very active volcano. We arrived at the National Park entrance, stopped at the visitor information centre to pick up some maps and talked to a park ranger to find out how they suggested we use our time in the park. Opposite the visitor centre we saw the entrance to the Volcano House Hotel, it looked similar to other park lodges we have stayed in, nothing fancy and all about the park location. We left our bags in the car while we checked in, and then went to find the bar to get some lunch. Wow, that was when we saw the view!! Looking out of the panoramic window in the bar we looked straight out onto the crater of Kilauea, and right in the middle, in a smaller crater we could see smoke rising in a cloud into the air. Continue reading The Big Island (Hawaii 5.2)
Mark And Kim's Adventures 