Patau expedition

Today Malcolm Elaine and I headed to Patau and climbed to the top of the mountain, where we ate our picnic lunch.

Then Elaine led us down by another route and we went to the beach...

where we met up with Jo and Allister.  Nice drinks stop at Parua Bay pub on the way home.

Cycle day 2

Had a peaceful night here and woke to this view :-)

Took the car to Okiahau and set off to ride back to Horeke (checking bus keys were in the backpack!!)  This pretty church is at Okaihau.

This shows the track starting a steep zigzag downhill.

Another downhill section coming up.  I didn't like the picture of a cyclist falling off!

Some of the track was through bush

Nice picnic spot but we got mobbed by chooks.  We had to tell then to flock off, or was that chook off?

Back in farmland

The last section was 1.6 kms along a wide boardwalk at the edge of the Hokianga Harbour.  Then back to the bus, off to pick up the car and back to Kerikeri.

Cycle day 1

Good day today. We wanted to complete the parts of the Twin Coast cycle trail that we have not done before so...parked the bus at Kawakawa and took the bikes on the car to Kaikohe, then spent 3 hours cycling that section of the Twin Coast Trail back to Kawakawa. We had lunch and a look around before Malcolm realised he'd left the bus ignition key in the car!!! So he had his own adventure hitch-hiking back to Kaikohe. We are now parked beside the Hokianga Harbour at the Horeke pub.

The trail was pretty but not outstanding - the best features were the bridges.

Back at Kawakawa

View from the bus

We needed those drinks.

Sunset from the bus

Start of the New Zealand Summer.

After spending a few weeks getting back into 'real' life in our house we decided to get away for a few days on the bus.  First stop Kerikeri.  We parked at Rainbow Falls and walked the track to the Kerikeri Basin where we couldn't resist coffee and cake at the Honey House cafe.

We always love wandering around the grounds of Kemp House, the gardens are always amazing.

The campground is just at the top f the waterfall, a lovely peaceful spot.