Kia Ora

Slacking again - no blog yesterday or the day before - sorry about that. Our excuse is that for us 25th Jan did not exist. We have gone from being however many hours it was behind UK time to now being roughly 11 hours ahead of you. Didn't think we could blog on a day that didn't exist!

So we arrived on 26th and after an inordinately long campervan collection process set off in our new little home. Martyn slept so well last night he has declared he is putting his parents in the tent when they arrive!

Anyway, drove up to Waipu because the name sounded funny (yes you do say it like that!) and walked on the beach then slept the sleep of people who have crossed the international date line and been on a plane for 13 hours.

Woke up and Kay had domestic moment making cooked breakfast (see photo - Martyn very happy). Read guidebook which we hadn't done in jet lagged state yesterday and discovered we had driven past the pretty beach and nice walk so set off back to see them.

Mhangewai cliff walkway was beautiful despite Martyn trying his hardest to slip down the cliff - probably path only wide enough for one but we went two abreast and his left foot slipped a bit (it's okay though I grabbed his arm, he got his balance and then I made him walk on the inside! Martyn now even more impressed - cooked breakfast and life saving but then I reminded him I needed him around to pay for the rest of the trip and life returned to normal :))

Also enjoyed walk along beach and what we realised was our first dip in the ocean. Well it was supposed to be a little paddle but the tide was coming in and we got caught out by a wave - oops soggy shorts.

Then back up the road to Whangerei for ice cream and a nice shady walk by the river. Due to the ice cream stop we didn't have time took make it to the Kauri boardwalk but it's okay because I've just found a whole Kauri forest to go to on the map!

Drive coast road to Russell which is very quaint. Lovely drive through farm land, tree ferns and Coastal views with lorikeets flying across the road ( or were they parakeets - I can never remember the difference - these ones were red headed with blue tails)

Have narrowly avoided sun burn disaster today - we are a little pink and sort of 'tight' feeling but we think we've got away with it- phew. It may be a long sleeved top day tomorrow - we forgot you can get sunburn in a car if you drive with the windows open!

Better go, Martyn has fallen asleep - well it's a late night, 21.30,

By the way Kia Ora is welcome in Maori I think! this is truly a beautiful country.

Lastly this has been bugging me today so if someone could let me know the answer it would be great as our brains are collective mush and we can't work it out. At 11.30 am here we looked up and could see a half moon. Does this mean that folks in UK can't see moon? Are we seeing same side of moon as you ( I don't think so but Martyn said we are) generally confused please help. Have managed to observe that Orion is lying on his side here but the moon thing was odd.......