| Since we are getting married in the Bay of Islands, we thought it might be a good idea to go and see what it all looks like. We were not disappointed. It really is beautiful up there. We first drove to Pahia and then caught a little car ferrie over to Russel. Once in Russel, we went to see the Gardens where we will be getting married, see the place where we will stay on the night and ate at the restaurant where we'll have our little "reception". We stayed at the place we have booked our guests into. We also met up with the wedding co-ordinator. Despite the bad weather, we got to see some of the area. I forgot my camera at home, so unfortunatly don't have photos except those taken on my phone, but they really don't do it any justice... |
Ingrid grew up always having a live Christmas Tree in the house, this year we decided to do it. It is a lot more effort, but at the end it was all worth it. Not that I can smell it, but apparently the house smelt of pine which brought back wonderful memories for Ingrid. |
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Located 30km north east of central Auckland and just 4km from the end of Whangaparaoa Peninsula, Tiritiri Matangi
Island is one of New Zealand's most important and exciting conservation projects. 120 years of farming saw this
220-hectare island stripped of 94% of its native bush but between 1984 and 1994, volunteers planted between 250,000
and 300,000 trees. The island is now 60% forested. The remaining 40% will be left as grassland for species such as
the Takahe. In conjunction with this planting programme, all mammalian predators have been eradicated and a number of species of threatened and endangered birds have been successfully introduced. Nowhere else in New Zealand can you readily walk amongst so many species in such significant quantities. We met at Gulf Harbour and caught the ferry over to the island which took about 25 mins. They drop you off at about 10:30am and pick you up again at 15:30. 
Tiritiri Matangi Website
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We once took a drive on a road called Scenic Drive out west of Auckland. We saw a sign for Fairy Falls and have been threatening
for ages to go and see it. It was quite worth it. You park on the side of the road, find the small gap which is the entrance,
and start walking. After a few metres, you wouldn't have thought there was a big road nearby. When you start it says 1 hour to the falls,
but after just 15 mins we saw a sign which said 20 mins left! Those 20 mins did consist of a lot of stairs going down, and the further you
go, the more you start to wonder to yourself how you are going to get back up all those stairs. In the end it wasn't that bad, but good
exercise, nonetheless. Once at the Falls, we saw John Cambell, a famous TV presenter in NZ, but of course I didn't know this at the time and there I am, begging under my breath for this guy to just get out of my way so I can take a picture of the falls...
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