North in North Island

We flew into Auckland, collected the hire car and stayed at a not particularly glamorous motel for the night.

The next morning we started our road trip around the area north of Auckland.  Our plan was to drive up the right side of this map and back down the left without going to the long narrow bit at the top (geographical term!)

 We drove around Auckland and up towards Whangarei with detours to coastal places.

We had lunch at Mangawhai tavern looking at this view.

Next day we went to see the Whangarei Falls which were in a public park on the edge of town.

We drove along a beautiful winding road and stopped at Helena Bay Hill for lunch at an art gallery.  Such a great view whilst having lunch.

When we arrived in Russell we walked up a very steep hill - and I mean STEEP - but the view over the bay was worth it.

This was the view from the front door of the hotel.

The next morning we got up early and went on a boat trip.  As the season hadn't officially started, we were the only customers!

The Bay of Islands was beautiful and I took lots of photos.   We took the ferry across to Paihia and drove along the coast to Kerikeri where we visited the Stone House and had lunch at the Pear Tree cafe.

Continuing along the coast we eventually came to Mangonui where we found the rather lovely Acacia Lodge Motel.   Roger went for a walk and took this photo looking down on the town.

There was an amazing restaurant in Mangonui where we had dinner.  We were so impressed we went back there for breakfast the next day.   Then we did the Heritage Walk around Mangonui.   This was the oldest building.

And the view of the bay

We drove on visiting Karikari Beach.

We stopped off at one of the access points to 90 Mile Beach at Waipapkauri Beach.  90 mile beach is actually only 55 miles long and rental cars are not allowed on it.

We drove to Ahipara and booked into the Ahipara Bay Motel where we had dinner.   One of the things we found as we travelled around was there was less accommodation and far less places to eat once you went away from the tourist areas.

At one end of the beach were rocks with lots of the green mussels.

The view along the beach back towards the motel.

We were just over half way through our road trip so I'll finish there for today.  Next time:  big sand dunes, big trees and big boulders.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

More armchair travelling

We have just returned from a trip to babysit our grandson for the afternoon and evening in Queenstown, New Zealand.   We also added on over 2 weeks holiday in both New Zealand and Australia.

We flew from Birmingham to Sydney via Dubai and then on to Queenstown where everything was rather monochrome.  The view from our rented apartment.

Friday
The weather was somewhat poor and Andy drove us to see Glenorchy.  Only Roger got out of the car and I took this photo through the windscreen!

We drove back to Queenstown and the weather began to improve.  We stopped off to see the bungee jumping.  We didn't partake.

I rather liked this toilet sign at the bungee jumping centre.

The weather improved during the afternoon and when we went for a late-ish walk the lake looked beautiful.

Next day the sun came out!

We went to Arrowtown.

We dropped Naomi off at the venue where she was helping to organise a wedding and a bit later Andy went off to the wedding itself.  So there we were babysitting our grandson for the afternoon and evening.  We walked down to the local playground where we had to ask one of the Mum's to show us how to relase C from the pushchair!   Grandpa really enjoyed himself!

And C loved the freedom to walk about and throw stones in the lake.

Both the grandparents and the grandson survived the baby sitting and next day we all drove to Te Anau where we stayed in a beautiful home 'Silver Tussock'.   It snowed during our journey.

We went for a walk along the lake front and father and son did the 'mini-me' thing!

We saw some interesting clouds.

The weather on Monday was much improved and Andy drove us to Milford Sound where we had booked a boat trip.

The sun came out sufficiently to produce rainbows in the waterfalls.

And we saw seals basking on a rock.

In the evening we went out to celebrate Andy's birthday which was the next day.

The weather on Tuesday was beautiful as we drove back to Queenstown.

The Hopper Juniors flew back to Sydney and we flew to Auckland in North Island.  I really should think about booking seats that don't involve being close to the wing!

We had a wonderful few days in South Island despite the grey weather.  Next time I'll tell you all about our trip to the Bay of Islands, north of Auckland.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Even more Venice!

I am continuing working on my Venice booklets.  This new one is a mix of fabric and papers.  I bought the rusted fabric from Bex Raven.

I have been watching videos from an online class called A Little Book of Whispers by Laly Mille.   My book is nothing like hers apart from the size.  When the pages are folded they are 10cms square.

Each pair of pages has been glued together to make a doublesided page.   Of course it would have been better if I had done the stitching before I glued them together as now I have no way to hide the knots in the threads.

As well as stitching I am going to add some words and possibly other elements to the pages.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice