We saw a castle....

yeah yeah, we went to Warwick castle today.... then we did some more drving..... I've uploaded some photos of the experience to my Picasa page..... too tired to say much more than that....

Why, oh why can we not fold space ?

Once again not having regular internet access means this is a post dated post for the 27/2/2008

This morning we arrived at London, Heathrow, after having spent the best part of the last two days travelling, tired worn out and both of us sick. Spending a long time cramped in a plane really did not help either of us to get over these colds that we both have. We managed though and after a bit of a problem trying to find Thrifty car rentals we realised that we would have to get a bus to the Sheraton hotel, where Thrifty are…! Once we got the car we where on the way. The trip to Strafford-Upon-Avon was relatively smooth, we did however encounter a traffic jam on the M40 that had been caused by a previous accident, this held us up for an hour longer than need be and was extremely frustrating. After all of that travelling we where glad to simply get into bed for and hour or two, then headed out for a bit to eat. We then got back to the B&B for and early night sleep……

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Damn you laptop battery...!!!!!

Well it was another rough night sleep I’m afraid, so we slept in a bit. The sulphur fumes where not irritating me as badly last night, but I was still stuffed up and felt extremely stiff and sore when I woke up, but after a few stretches a shower and a Berroca I was ready to hit the town. We drove to an area just outside of Rotorua called Blue Lake, it is right next to Green Lake….lol… from here we had a spectacular photo op. There are stacks of Pine tree forests around the lake and the combination of this and the colour of the water reminded of me of some of the photos that you see of Lake Louise in Canada during the summer. We continued on and soaked up the spectacular scenery that this part of the country has to offer. Five minuets further up the road we got to the ‘Buried Village’. The village was buried by an exploding volcano 150 years ago, during the explosion the ‘Pink Terraces’ where destroyed, they where considered the eighth wonder of the world at the time. From there we headed back to Auckland, we had heaps of time to kill so we took our time and stopped for lunch and played some Putt-Putt.

So there we are… now we find ourselves at the bar in the airport…. I need to get on with things because the laptop battery is dying and I realised that the power plug has been checked in with my luggage…Doh !! Next time I post I will be in the UK….

Post for 25th Feb...

Originally I did not write a blog entry for the 25^th Feb because I was sick as a dog! I am typing this now at the airport waiting for our plane to Heathrow….. I have come down with a cold, probably something that I picked up on the plane on the way over here. The first day in Rotorua was tough, the wind across the lake was blowing on shore, straight towards our hotel room and bringing the not-so-pleasant aroma of sulphur straight into our room. It was irritating my already sore throat and made it very difficult to sleep. Anyway enough of my complaints, what did we do ?? I hear you ask…well…. Here is what I would have written if I did not get sick….

Today was cool… After a bit of a sleep in to catch up on the serious lack of sleep that we both seem to have had over the last few days, we went to a place called ‘Te Puai’. Translated it means ‘The Geyser’. It is a very geologically active area of Rotorua where there are several active geysers, mud pools and mineral baths. It is basically set out like a nature reserve come garden where the main feature is a geyser that shoots boiling water about 10 meters into the air. We where luck and go to see it when it was active. Apparently there is not set rhyme or rhythm to when it blows, but there was a period about 5 years ago when this particular geyser went off for 360 days in a row. I did also learn a new bit of science, the team ‘soaping’. Soaping is the practice of putting soap into a geyser to intentionally set it off, apparently the soap breaks the surface tension of the water and causes it boil, thus the geyser goes off. Later in the evening we hit the bar in the hotel for happy hour the went to a ‘Hangi’ put on by the hotel. Think of it as an Hawaiian Lu-Al… same thing, but Moari version….. this went for about three hours and we ate some very delicious lamb. We did get speaking to some people at our table and we both decided that most people travelling around NZ are retired English couples, probably travelling around in Winnebago’s. Tomorrow is our last day here and we want to pack heaps in

Post for 24th Feb...

We are staying at the Sudima Hotel in Rotorua which unfortunately does not have any wireless internet so I am typing this into notpad on my laptop in the vain hope that we will get access to the net in the next few day... atleast at the airport I guess.... Today, after a hugh breakfast at the Ibis, we drove from Hamilton to Waitomo to see the Gloworm caves, it was very interesting. The caves are pitch black and the Gloworm lava produce light in their abdouman with a chemical reaction so as to attract bugs that fly into the caves. In 2005 there was a fire at the visitor center and surrounds, so for the moment the facilities there consist only of a few demountable buildings, none the less we had fun. The cave photos in Picasa are actualy of another cave that we went to see after the gloworm cave, we could not take photos in the gloworm cave but we could in the other cave.

This was the first time I really got to use the camera on my N95 in anger and there are a couple of things I should note. If you are using one of these phones as a camera I suggest you do two things, firstly spend the time to choose one of the auto profiles before taking the photos, it makes a huge difference to the final quality of the shots, and secondly you probably should get invest in a high speed SD card, because it is a little slow between shots. In addition I found that in low light the camera is not that great, I will have to be careful what I photograph in future.

Tomorrow we will spend the entire day in Rotorua, there is stacks to do here so I will report back tomorrow on what we have done.

And we have touchdown....

Well after only our first day on the road in New Zealand, I don't really have much to report I am afraid. The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Auckland to overcast sky's and rain. One thing we did notice on our trip down to Hamilton was that the landscape looked very dry despite the rain, I guess the Kiwi's have been having the same effects from the drought that we have back home.

The car we picked up from Thrifty is a nice little Suzuki swift small enough to be affordable yet still large enough to fit all our stuff in. Both of us are tired and exhausted, a late night last night combined with only a few hours sleep and traveling has taken it's toll.

Earlier we had stepped out to have a bite to eat at a nice little Italian restaurant and I had my first taste of Kiwi beer, Waikato Draught, I get the feeling that this is the common mans beer, it is rather sweet in flavour and has quite a dark colour, still, I didn't mind it.

Get ready for the ride.....

So finally the long awaited trip o/s has arrived, we leave on a jet plane tomorrow, and as you can imagine we are very excited and still need to pack everything. Make sure you come back here regularly to keep abreast of all the latest craziness and shenanigans from the land of the Long White cloud, UK & Ireland.

You can also check any photos of the trip from my picasa page HERE or, for the tech savvy, you can also get it via RSS but I imagine that I will put a few of the best photos here. Don't expect this blog to be updated at any regular interval, most of the B&B's have wireless lan access but I make no guarantees, lets just say that I have the best intentions.

Our first stop will be in Auckland, where we will pick up a car and drive to Hamilton. We will spend the night here and hopefully get out to see the gloworm caves the following morning, then drive up to Rotorua in the afternoon.


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Stay tuned for more......