What it itches the most?

Is it my sun burn or my all new mosquito bites hmmmm, let me think about that one while I laugh at Martyn - he came back from the shower this morning and mentioned that his nose was peeling. Being the good wife I am I felt duty bound to tell him it wasn't just his nose but his whole face. Its okay though as I think my back will probably look worse in a day or two !

I am very worried about him though - yesterday he said that he felt he should try list writing as it seems to be a good way to get things done and then this morning he said he likes having plans of what to do during the day. Please help - aliens must have kidnapped my husband and done a brain transplant overnight...

After I recovered from Martyns obvious mental lapse we left (with him driving just in case his plan/list statements were a result of delayed trauma due to my driving yesterday)

Having done Kauri shop yesterday morning (did I forget to mention that?) and Kauri forest yesterday afternoon this morning we went to the Kauri museum in Matakohe it was massive - bit like the trees it was all about. Lots of gumdigging photos and history ad some great machinery for chopping up wood - if it chopped wood it was there, axes, hand saws, band saws, chain saws- you name it. I even managed to enthuse over the automated steam driven cutting table as Martyn explained the actuators ...... There were some thigh high leather boots that apparently the gum diggers wore. The boots were quite nice if you were into that sort of thing but I do not think I would have made a food gum digger. It looks like a very hard life.

There were some cool models of the dams they used to rig up to enable them to shift the giant kauri trees when they had been chopped down.

There was also a school house with rules for teachers but no rules for students - I wonder what today's trainee teachers would make of these Ts and Cs. I think I might have been okay but only if they were prepared to negotiate on the cleaning and ice cream clauses!

The post office and telephone exchange were a blast from the past - loads of old telephones and of course we had to point out the ones we had had ( oh dear) and it was a manual exchange until 1987 wow!

After the museum we went on to the East coast again to Goat Island Marine Reserve up and down lots of windy tracks past lots of flooded land and land slips. The best one was when there was a sign on a hairpin bend saying 'one lane only' this was because the other lane no longer existed - well it did but literally only the Tarmac, every bit of sub soil and land supporting the road had disappeared. Martyn couldn't decide whether to drive slowly and carefully so as not to disturb or, quickly to get it over with!

The marine reserve would have been a beautiful place teeming with fishes and great snorkelling/diving which was the plan but we had managed to forget about the cyclone there for a moment and of course the lovely crystal clear blue waters were a kind of sludgy brown stirred up run off colour. We remembered just before we thought about hiring some snorkel gear so that was good - we went splogging in rock pools instead. This was even funnier when Martyn stood on some solid looking seaweed only to end up nearly knee deep in a hidden rock pool!

Then on to current campsite for trip to supermarket and sleep. After funny conversation about our friends two boys. They are called Aston and Morgan. Martyn commented they are both named after cars. I got the Aston but had to ask what a Morgan looked like. I was told 'a sort of curvy square box with big wheel arches' poor man was quite indignantly upset when I started laughing. It took me while to explain that to a female he had just described every car in existence and could he please be a bit more specific about the Morgan. So 'they have big radiator grills on the front' okay...., we've narrowed it to anything from a Monster truck to a Jag. It went on. I think I have it now.

Better go- Martyn has found someone who has left their Android phone wireless open so we might be able to post this (unless a guilt complex as to the size of the bill they might get wins out!)

Oh and if anyone knows where I have put my (paper) notebook could you let me know. Had it in supermarket, can't find it in van anywhere, walked back to supermarket and it hasn't been handed in.... It takes a special person to loose something in a 5m by 2m space don't you think......

Kays driving day

So having discovered that Martyns aversion to me driving the campervan was more to do with his concern that he wouldn't be able to map read than to do with my driving I was able to allay his fears... there are only three roads out of where we stayed last night and they all go south so he couldnt really get it wrong! He didn't seem very pleased to be told this but I did get the van keys woo hoo.

Things were a bit complicated by some of the roads still being blocked from cyclone wilma but we figured we could just turn around if we had to.

So off we headed south to Wairere boulders where we were quizzed by a slightly odd Swiss owner of the property about the route we had taken and which roads were open. She then proceeded to tell us in lots of detail about the boulders and how they were formed etc. You see these rocks were made of basalt but what is extra special is they were fluted. Fluting is when acid rain makes vertical channels by running through rock. usually it only happens in limestone or sandstone. These boulders are supposedly the only fluted basalt rocks in the world. Don't know about that bit they were cool and nice to walk around.

Every so often on our little walk around the boulders there was a little muddy bit and the odd bit of driftwood and then we got to a bridge we needed to cross. Don't worry - all was fine but it was our first real view of how bad cyclone wilma was in terms of how much rain actually fell as we were driving along the other day. This bridge was about 4metres above the current river level and it was covered in debris and bits of the fence surrounding it were demolished.

We pondered how glad we were that we got to a campsite when we did and stayed put (well apart from our bus fun) yesterday for a bit and then wandered on wondering if we would make it to our next sort of planned sleep spot.

Next stop Waipoua forest and the giant Kauri trees, in particular Tane Mahuta the largest Kauri tree left standing in NZ in terms of height (he is known as God of the forest) and also to the Father of the forest (whose Maori name I forget) who has the widest girth - does my bum look big in this? Well yes Mr Tree quite frankly it does- and also the 4 sisters which is actually four trees sort of joined together at the roots.

After Waipoua we went off to Trounson forest to pitch up for the night. We picked it because it had a night walk you could book but it was full. Having seen the number of little people manically swinging torches at about 7pm we were quite glad we didn't get on the tour as we don't think we would have seen anything anyway.

So we set off for our own little night walk along the banks of the river only to be reminded that river = freshwater = Mosquitos darn it.

I also discovered flip flops are not that great for nightwalking in (well unless the nightwalk is actually a quick trip to the toilet) as a managed to slide down a slope for one big step and the rest of the way down I was on my bum. What did Martyn say "oh, I was just about to tell you to be careful" - thanks for that darling :)

At this point I decided I had had enough of trying to be a gung ho outdoorsy type (I can hear my mother now wondering why I ever bothered trying to be that in the first place!) and headed back to the campervan to seal myself in under the duvet and listen to the frogs :-)

A 44 seater coach can do that?

So we got ourselves organised for trip out onto 90 mile beach which is a big swizz as it's actually only about 90km. Apparently in the old days they reckoned they did 30 mph with horse and cart up the beach and it took them 3 days to get from one end to t'other - they forgot to take account of wet sand slowing them down and then noone bothered to change the name.

Anyway book said it was a gravel track up to Cape Reinga and hire cars not allowed so we thought we better do tour. Have just checked and guidebook is 3 yrs old - gravel track now road so we could have driven ourselves but nevermind - if we had done that we would not have experienced our bus journey.

We were picked up at 0930 having been told it was a good job we were doing the trip today as all 3 roads out if here were blocked by wash outs due to the cyclone. Our company was apparently the only ones brave/stupid enough to go out today. Off we went and in 5 mins we were zooming off down the beach at 100 km/hr which was fun in a bus.

We stopped for some piccies and the driver said something about the normal route going up a small stream and we had got so close we might as well go and give it a try. Then the real fun started. Now we've done 4WD trips and loved them but we has no idea a BUS could 4WD the water spray came up to top of window, we tried to see if we had missed snorkel in front of bus but no.....

We went round in circles for a bit as the driver said there were some surges he was trying to time- this did not fill me with confidence.....made it through that bit only to look out window and just had time to say to Martyn "hmmmm I dont think we're going any further" before the driver said "woooaaahh, hold on folks" and swung the wheel hard. I swear we only had wheels on one side on the ground. There was a very big wave, the bit of road we were supposed to exit on was instead something of a raging torrent and a stick got stuck in the air vent. This was apparently v bad as it may have resulted in the brakes sticking on and we has to keep moving as we were on quicksand!!!!!!!!

After numerous more requests to "hold on folks" we made it back to the beach for some quick bus repairs.

Rest of day quite boring really, just tootled on up to lighthouse and back. Martyn loves bus driver though as he scheduled stop for ice cream on way back!

Sun came back out again but it is blustery and I needed a jumper which is a bit much.

Oh, and Martyn and i are having an ongoing debate ..... Cheese and apple - which tastes best? He says cheese then apples, I say apple then cheese. This is serious stuff you know.

And the rain came tumbling down

Which is just as well really being as I forgot the usual delay required for sun to fully take effect. We've had worse but suffice it to say my shoulders are sore and Martyn looks like a panda again as he has pink cheeks and White marks where his sunglasses were.

Apparently there is a cyclone on it's way here. I am seriously not exaggerating when I say it has rained for 14 hours so far without stopping. The campsite man has given us his most sheltered spot with the comment "it moight git a bit windy loiter on" (I have tried to type to take account of the accent for you).

Rain hampered sight seeing somewhat today but here is the run down..... Head off from campsite in Russell at 9 ish just as the rain really starts. Catch car ferry across bay of islands to Pahia . Cross bridge to Waitangi and see Treaty house, waka etc and do a bit of cultural stuff very interesting and nice to see where treaty of waitanga was signed. Watch Maori presentation which was worryingly a participation event but it was okay. All I had to do was swing a ball on a rope around a bit. Martyn had to demonstrate his ability at the Haka - he said it was quite nice to stick his Tongue out and pull faces and be allowed to - I said it didn't seem any different to normal!

Drive to pretty waterfalls called Hararu falls to take piccy. Check out guidebook for things to do - first line for this area says "pray for fine weather" doesn't bode well a the windscreen wipers were on fast and the demister was on full at that point.

Decide we are not walking or going on boat trip or kayaking or diving today (well not unless we need a boat to get to the toilet block anyway) so just drive stopping at a few craft shops in Kerikeri and the oldest stone building in NZ (looked like it belonged in the Lake District) and end up at the base of 90 mile beach in our nice sheltered spot.

Have just poked head out door to see about running to loo, might need boat after all a our campervan appears to have moat!

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.......

LA in two days

Book hop on hop off bus for day one - can't do usual " walk the route" scheme as map says the rout is 37.5 miles to see the things we wan to see- darn it actually have to pay for tour!

Bus from hotel to Venice beach, wall length to Santa Monica Pier past Muscle Beach and get on tour bus.

See Hollywood sign, Rodeo Drive, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica Boulevard, La Brea Tar Pits, Grausmanns Chinese theatre etc etc. Highlight of all tacky tourist things seen - the staircase and street at the end of Pretty Woman which Richard Gere climbs up to give his red Rose to Julia Roberts.

Martyn even knows the end line of the film apparently it's " this is Hollywood, land of dreams, what's your dream?" someone please watch it and check just so I can tell him how sad that is!

Back to pier during stunning sunset walk back down Venice Beach in the dark which is nowhere near as nice as during the day. Strategically avoid all the "marijuana doctors" and get bus back to terminal nearest hotel. Delayed dinner to room service as we had planned to eat near the pier or beach but strangely the prevalence of so many "doctors" put us off!

Day two - tour of Warner Brothers studio very cool. Backlots, front lots, Central Perk set from Friends, Harry Potter costumes, General Lee, Batmobiles, Scooby Doo van, Props and costumes from the Matrix, The Watchmen, 300...... Loads of stuff oh and the little shop where Gizmo the Gremlin was bought, and the wall that Spiderman hung upside down on to kiss Mary Jane, Boss Hoggs house and the jungle from Jurassic Park when the TRex chases Jeff Goldblum in the jeep.

Brains full of movie and tv stuff with 5 hours until check in went to mall. Kay has spending accident which she is blaming Martyn for as she kept saying she didn't need it and he kept saying it was nice though......

Repacked bags in hotel lobby to cater for spending accident.

Worry that Martyn is keeping track of spending accidents and adding up his total for gadgets later......

And

"ha ha ha Ha ha. That's all folks"

Gadget bed

So we arrived in LA and checked in to hotel. Didnt get much further than that though Martyn discovered the bed. Seriously it came with a remote control - weird we thought. Martyn didn't bother with the instructions - when does he ever? He just jumped on the bed and pressed the button "ooooooeeeerrr" was the next thing he said. He had managed to deflate his side of the bed. He then discovered that each side of the bed could be set separately. We leave you to imagine how much hilarity ensued......

Anyway when we had stopped laughing enough to agree on suitable settings we did manage to book tours for next two days including trip to Cirque Berserk which is pitched as a kind of adult Cirque du Soleil. Think Cirque du Soleil in Burlesque with a bit of Rocky horror show and Tim burton thrown in for good measure. It was very very good.

We asked the hotel to call us a cab to get there and we ended up with a chauffeur driven limo with blacked out windows. Ha ha when we arrived everyone was so disappointed to see two tacky tourists in jeans and smelly t shirts get out!

Next two days were whirlwind of organised tours......