Category: Uncategorized
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Maitai Bay
Save the sparrow By some miracle, the baby sparrow had survived the night, so it was time to see if it could be reunited with its parents before exploring any other options. The problem was, there were chickens and ducks wandering around, and we wondered if they’d perhaps been the ones to bully the baby…
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Russell and Bay of Islands
Having booked a 4.5hr Bay of Islands cruise over the phone the day before, we knew we had to be at Russell Harbour by 9:10am, where they’d come and pick us up after first scooping up passengers from Paihia. We left the campsite in good time, but needed to buy some snacks from the bakery…
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Whangarei to Russell
After a decent first night’s sleep in the tent, I was feeling daring, knowing that the beach was right behind us. Time for a morning dip, and my first swim in the New Zealand seaside. The water wasn’t warm per se, but it was very clear, smooth and relatively calm, with no rips to drag…
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Road trip – Warkworth, Whangarei
Today we set off on our road trip of New Zealand’s Northlands. First, Anneke had to drop off Vader at doggy daycare, and I took the opportunity to have a video chat with Mum, Dad and Phoenix (until he leapt off the sofa in protest). We decided to clean up the car a bit before…
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Waiwera, New Zealand
Woke up this morning at about 7:45 to the sound of a whole new array of birdsong. A far cry from the squawks of the Australian cockatoos, crows and ravens. Anneke’s place is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by hills, cows, pukeke and even a little river at the bottom of the drive. There…
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Sydney to New Zealand
Woke up 10 minutes before my alarm – standard. Repacked my bag again to put my footwear on the top in case my bag gets searched, so they don’t have to unearth all my other worldly belongings to get to them. Had a coffee and some fruit and said an emotional farewell to Michael, who…
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Taronga Zoo, last night in Australia
Woke up at 8am this morning. Reprobate! To be fair, I was awake till late talking to Martha on Ukrainian time, so I still got about 7 hours’ sleep. Slowly got myself ready and repacked my big suitcase in preparation for tomorrow. It is looking fuller as I am not planning to wear any of…
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Blue Mountains National Park
Luckily, neither of us woke up suffering this morning, and we slowly got ourselves sorted for our Blue Mountains adventure. Sat nav said our destination of Kaloomba was only 1.5 hours away, and we’d been expecting more like 2.5 hours, so this was a pleasant surprise! Michael began the driving and pulled us into a…
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Royal National Park
Today’s plan is to go to Royal National Park, so we had an early-ish start, aiming to leave the house by half 8 so we could pick up Steph en route. Steph lives by Clovelly Beach, which is lovely for its proximity to the coast, but a bit of a faff in terms of connecting…
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Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, Sydney sunset
I had a bit of a lazy morning this morning and dozed and dozed until about 7:45/8 because I could! I knew Michael would either be at the gym or heading to work, so I wouldn’t be disturbing him. Anyway, when I did eventually get up, he offered to make me a smoothie, which I…
Blonde on a Road Trip 