After a quiet night camped surrounded by bush at the Pukeiti Gardens followed by the group morning tea I mentioned in the previous blog it was time to set off for an explore of these world famous gardens. Sarah and I planned to walk some of the back trails so for the first time in… Read More Camping @ Cape Egmont Lighthouse
It was time to move on from the TSB Arena to our next destination, the gardens of Pukeiti located on the foothills of the mountain. However as their carpark is not really designed for 11 motorhomes arriving and staying at the same time as well as all the other people visiting the gardens during the… Read More Mountains, Museums and Gardens.
Leaving the NZMCA Park in Bell Block, Dave, our safari leader had arranged for us to stay in the grounds of the TSB Stadium. Whilst this is not a place that you can usually stay Dave has a good working relationship with the local council and as we are all self contained they were OK… Read More The Garden Festival Starts
Wanting to get out of Mikes Brewery before the hoardes descended on Saturday morning Sarah and I set off on the next part of the Safari. The plan was to meet at the Kawaroa Park on the waterfront in New Plymouth where Dave had received special permission from the local council for the group to… Read More Camping at NZMCA Park Bell Block
Packing up from the Mangakawa Scenic Reserve, Sarah was pleased to be moving on. Even though it was a very pretty place it wasn’t the best night. You can read what happened on this blog. With the next stop to be the freedom camping area at Tongaporutu Bridge but first there were some stops to… Read More Freedom Camping At The Three Sisters
Leaving Port Jackson early on the Tuesday morning we wanted to get up and over the hill before any other traffic hit the road. This brilliant bit of thinking on our part had one major drawback, as the van was covered in morning dew and it’s a gravel road it wasn’t long before the motorhome… Read More A Step Into The Unknown
One of the things with social media is that you are constantly being reminded of what happened 1,2 3 or X number of year ago and so it was the other day when we were staying at Rays Rest and Facebook reminded us that it was 3 years since we had visited Port Jackson. Since… Read More Camping at Port Jackson
Earlier this year I was approached by the media manager of Landmarks NZ who asked if I could visit some of the the properties in Northland that they are charged with promoting and write about them in my blog. This seemed like a good excuse to visit some places that we haven’t been to, so… Read More A Tour Of Historic Northland
With the long weekend approaching we planned on escaping before the madness of Auckland’s traffic hit the motorways. At the same time I didn’t feel like driving a long distance on the first day so suggested to Sarah that we make our first stop at one of the most popular freedom camping spots just out… Read More Rays Rest
With the tour of the Heritage NZ sites completed we wanted to catch up with Aileen and Stewart who we had met in the South Island and who we knew were staying at the Ruakaka Beach Holiday Park whilst Aileen was completing a work assignment nearby. Despite having lived in Whangarei in the 1980’s and… Read More Camping at Ruakaka Beach