Monday - it must be Sydney

We spent a transit night in Sydney with Mark O'Leary. Next morning trying to one-up Pepe's Kiwi tours, we took a walking tour of Sydney.

A Henry Moore relaxing outside the Museum of Art

The most striking thing about Sydney is the birdlife. The fountains provide excellent watering holes for the parrotts of the Botanical garden.

This bird was busy feeding itself on nectar from the flowers.

Fred and Barbara at the Sydney opera house with the harbour bridge in the background
Tour guide Mark posing with the tourist
Mid afternoon flight to Darwin to catch our connecting flight to Saigon. Darwin hasn't evolved much since Captain Cook visited. Its claim to fame is that the average consumption of beer per day per man, woman and child is 24 cans. Fred and I felt we should blend in by drinking two Carltons at the "international" lounge.
Now on to Saigon.

New Accomodation

We moved out of the Love Shack today, the holiday is over. We have moved into some new accomodation, it is a little hard to find so here is me pointing it out on the map. Peter from O'Leary Realty services proudly displays another successful beach front property sale. He promised us that it would be no more draughty than the Love Shack. Not bad for a million dollars.

American Wake

It was the tradition in Ireland to have a "wake" before catching the boat to America as nobody was expected back again. Therefore they held a wake before the person left. Leaving Wellington in a week it seemed appropriate to have one here too as we head off on our adventure back to the USA. The met service promised a lovely day in Wellington for an American Wake/BBQ and in typical Wellie style it was freezing cold. Here the Cork gang who are a hardy lot and Joanne who believes Wellie is positively tropical battle out the elements outside on the deck.

Jemma from my MIR class chose to stay inside and be entertained by Tim O'Leary, one of the many O'Leary cousins who came.
To show how truly international the MIR class were, this photo has Clara from Australia, Scott from Palmerston North and Danielle from San Mateo California.
Christine from Cork enjoys a laugh
The youngest attendee at the BBQ was Lucia, who was conceived and birthed by her mom Danielle during the MIR programme. She is going to be a very well educated young lady
Caught in the act - The O'Leary boys and Raewyn pig out on cupcakes and Pavlova

Northland Holiday

After the thesis was handed in and Fred bade farewell to Miracle Electronics, we loaded up the Wellie Wagon and headed north for sunshine and holidays. Like the Beverly Hillbillies, the station-wagon held everything including the kitchen sink.

First stop was blackwater rafting in the Waitomo Caves. The caves are illuminated by glowworms and you get to float down the caves in an inner tube while some Paddy belts out a bar of Oh Danny Boy. The echo makes for really good reverb.

Next stop was the Hamilton Botanical Gardens. Well worth the effort to see global theme gardens. Well worth the visit for garden lovers.

Happy cows on the White Cliffs outside of New Plymouth - the stunning view promotes their milk production.

Dinner at Chateau Alison in Point Chevelier Auckland. On the menu was braised pheasant, chicken in saffron, kumura, salad and a gallon of Sauvignon Blanc.

Next day we headed North of Auckland to the Matakana farmers' market. Chef Alison is providing beauty tips to the lady selling home made Manuka based moisturiser

Mke and Fred pretending like they love farmers' markets

Taupo bay just North of Kerikeri. Fishing and Sailing heaven.

Once we headed out to the 90 mile beach spit on the way to Cape Reinga, we entered a different world. We camped at Father Ted's Antipodean hideaway

We spent a night at Pukenui camping park which we renamed Puketucky after a state in the USA. The following sign is a good signal that you have reacked Pucketucky.

Two Stella Artois and a book - doesn't get much better than that.

Ninety mile back on the Cape Reinga spit - it really is 90 miles of beach, and you can drive the entire length.

The tip of the North Island, Cape Reinga. It is scary to think we were much closer to the south pole than Los Angeles

The furthest north beach in New Zealand

We worked our way down the west side of Northland through the ancient Kauri Forest. Tane Mahuta Lord of the Forest) and Te Matua Ngahere (Father of the Forest) are the two oldest Kauri - over 2000 years old and have girths of about 15 meters (50 feet). Located in the Waipoua forest, they are stunning to see. Unfortunately the photos do not do them justice.

After the Kauri Forest we headed for Rawene, in the Hokianga Harbour. Definately the best camping holiday park on the whole trip. Photo borrowed from the internet - but you get the picture. We managed to hit it during beautiful weather. It was like time stood still. We later found out that Fred's mother had nursed there during WWII. No wonder it had such a good vibe.

A building on the waterfront by the ferry.

The mouth of the Hokianga harbour just west of Omapere.

After Rawene, we headed back to the big smoke to catch a little of city life. This was snapped from the car as we raced across the harbour bridge. Auckland was looking its best for the Louis Vuitton yacht races. We got to see some incredibly large boats flying across the water.

After Auckland, we headed for the Coramandel Peninsula, which proves that New Zealand is full of stunningly beautiful places. The place is teaming with fish and crystal blue water. We spent our last night camping right at Hahei beach.

An early morning hike to Cathedral cove before the Germans got there

Sadly the holiday is over and we are back in Plimmerton for another two weeks before we head to Asia. For now a goodbye from Fred and Barbara taken on the beach in Cape Reinga.