Tag: New Zealand

Vancouver, BC

Place 72 – Day 194: Vancouver, BC – Exciting News!

Kim & Curtis Hale

Coffee & Weekly Shop

We went out for our usual coffee and weekly shop this early afternoon.

We had a grilled cheese for breakfast and then got ready to head out.

We got christmassy coffees today. Curtis got a cinnamon dolce latte which is phenomenal and Kim got the equally phenomenal peppermint mocha.

Once we were done with coffee, we went up to Homesense so Kim could look for a new purse. We found one and just bought that.

We went from here to the supermarket where we did quite a quick, small shop for the week.

Hockey, Exciting News & Curry

We got back home and Curtis watched hockey. Kim got some meal prep done and put some things away into the freezer for future use.

We got a message from our friends Danielle & Josh in New Zealand who said they would like to chat with us! We spoke with them and they said they are planning to come out and see us next year!

We were so excited, we’ve already started planning what we want to do with them.

We chatted with them for quite a while, just catching up and talking about what we might do when they’re here.

We are very excited to see them again as we have missed them!

After hockey was done, we ordered a curry! We learned from the portion sizes last time and just ordered one curry, some popodoms, a samosa each and one naan.

This was exactly the food we wanted! We watched Stuber whilst we ate which was a silly film, but very funny and easy to watch.

After that, we watched a couple more TV shows and that was our night!

This Time Last Year!

Mr & Mrs Hale

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Auckland

Place 49 – Day 384: Auckland – The Car Is Sold!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We had a but of a lay in this morning, which was much needed! We had an appointment at 12:30 which we had to get to, so once we got up and got some stuff sorted Kim spoke to her family, we had to head out.

Once we got there, we had to wait a bit and then we were seen by someone.

We were getting the car valued and seeing if the company wanted to buy it, as a last resort. They didn’t give us the best offer, so we held off umin case we got a better offer privately.

We then drove from here to Silvia Park where we wanted to ask a question about our mobile phones to the phone company and then we drove back to the apartment.

Once we got back, we took the laundry we had up to the laundromat. This laundromat works with a key system, so we had to purchase a key and top it up and then use the laundromat. We washed and dried our clothes, walked to the cinema to book tickets for tomorrow and then came back to the apartment.

We then got a great offer for the car from someone coming all the way from Hamilton! We arranged to meet them and then went for a farewell dinner with Josh & Danielle in New Lynn.

We met them and ordered some drinks and food and then the lady arrived to get the car!

She gave us the money and was very excited about the car, so that was that! We finally sold the car and that is now done.

We sat and ate with Josh and Danielle and then they drove us back.

We got back and had an hour long chat with our host who is really lovely! We then finished some packing and went to bed.

We are watching a film tomorrow to kill time as our flight isn’t until 20:05.

Last night in New Zealand!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 383: Auckland – Admin Success & Old Friend Meetup

Kim & Curtis Hale

We started the day far too early at 08:00.

We had a quick breakfast and got out the door for about 08:20.

First stop was the visa application centre which Kim had to go to for her biometrics. That being said, she had accidentally deleted her appointment the other day, so she was hoping they would be able to reinstate it, which they were! Result! Kim’s appointment wasn’t until 11:15, though, and she got there for 09:00.

Curtis waited to pick Kim up until he found out about the fact she would be there for a couple of hours, so instead he drove all the way to Henderson to get the car serviced.

Once he dropped the car off, Curtis had at least a couple of hours to kill, so he found a McDonald’s to get a coffee. The McDonald’s was about a 25 minute walk away, but Curtis had nothing else to do so he walked there in the scorching heat.

Curtis got to McDonald’s and got his coffee and it was perfect, as always.

Curtis chilled for a while before making the walk back to the garage to get the car. Curtis had to wait a bit longer for the car when he got there, but eventually it was done and Curtis then went to collect Kim from the city.

Once he got Kim, we headed up north to get the car cleaned, but first, a pitstop! we went to Honey Cafe and Curtis got a fruit juice and kim got some french toast.

We found a self service car wash and got that done, not that it made much difference!

Woooo carwash!

We had a lot of time to kill before the next thing we needed to do, so we went to Birkenhead for no reason at all!

Once it got to 14:30, we left Birkenhead and drove back to our old apartment. We were selling someone a sofa who was to meet us there before 15:00.

The delivery driver arrived to us, but the person buying it did not! We waited with the driver for a while but the person never arrived and then said they were running late, so the driver left!

Eventually, the lady arrived and paid us, but with no driver she had to organise a pickup.

We left here and wanted a final coffee from Little Things, so we drove up to Glenfield to get one. Along with coffee, we got a sponge to clean parts of the car as well as steak for our dinner.

Once we got back, we had a chat with our host and then Curtis drove Kim to see a friend from the UK, Rebecca, down in the city. Kim had a really great time catching up.

Once we got back home, Kim cooked up a delicious steak meal and then we went to bed, as we ate dinner at 22:30!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Auckland

Place 49 – Day 382: Auckland – Fred!

Kim & Curtis Hale

We planned to leave for 09:00 this morning to head back to Auckland, but none of us woke up on time, so that didn’t happen!

Danielle’s mum made us some pancakes for breakfast and then we all packed up and headed out back to Auckland.

There was a lot of traffic on the way back, so it took us about 5 hours all in all! We did make a quick bakery stop on the way back, but that didn’t delay us too much.

Once we got to Auckland we met our host for our remaining few days in New Zealand. Our host is lovely and has a bulldog who is very excitable. His name is Fred.

We got settled, had a chat with our host and then when she went out we got showered and relaxed.

Kim went out in the evening to see Tabitha for the last time before we leave. They went to a night market and wandered around there for a bit, eating some food, and then Kim came back and we chilled out watching some TV. Curtis got some much needed admin done whilst Kim was out, so that was a win!

We have all the admin to get done tomorrow, so it means waking up early for nothing fun.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Kaitaia

Place 69 – Day 3: Kaitaia – Te Paki Sand Dunes, The Top of NZ & Spirits Bay

Kim & Curtis Hale

Post breakfast, we were in the car and driving further up north! By 09:00, we were on our way and it was already getting warm!

We drove 1.5 hours up north to get to Te Paki stream. Here, in the middle of nowhere, there are giant sand dunes! Kim had read online that you can rent a ‘sandboard’ and go sandboarding on the dunes.

Once we arrived, we got ourselves a couple of sandboards and headed up the dunes. We were advised to go right to the highest dune to get a great view and then slide back down, which is what we did. What we didn’t realise was how incredible steep all of the dunes are and the effort it takes to get to the top, including getting sand blown in your face all the time!

Kim struggling with the dune!

We did get some amazing views at the top of the highest dune, which we soaked in whilst we relaxed after the tiresome climb!

The first sandboard down looked very high but wasn’t very fast at all.

We then went down the next hill, which was smaller but had way more speed and was great fun!

Luckily, as we were leaving, the sun got much warmer, so it was the perfect timing!

We had a drink and then drove from here to Cape Reinga, which is the top most point of New Zealand. Once we got here, we parked and walked down to the lighthouse, seeing the amazing views on the way. Apparently, two different oceans combine at this point also, which is what we assume the waves in the middle of the sea are!

We walked back to the car after seeing the lighthouse and drove to a beach over a gravel road, which took a while! The beach was called spirits bay and it was beautiful! We sat and ate our homemade ham, beef, cheese & salad sandwiches and then got back to the car to drive back to the apartment.

We chilled out for a while whilst we recovered from our tiredness and then we got back in the car and drove to the town to find food. We got a kebab each, which was an odd thing to choose but was delicious!

We watched a cabin restoration TV show and some other TV and then got packed up to leave tomorrow morning.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Kaitaia

Place 69 – Day 2: Kaitaia – Surfing on Shipwreck Bay, Revisiting ‘Terry’ & Seeing The Shipwreck

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were up for breakfast at 08:20. When we got to the dining area at our B&B, we were asked if we wanted coffee, which we did, and we then had a selection of cereals as well as toast and yogurt. We had a yogurt each and were then offered eggs and bacon, which we had. It certainly filled us up and the coffee rated a lot like caramel but other than that, it was a solid breakfast.

When we finished breakfast we then got ready and jumped in the car to go to the beach. The weather was a bit miserable but we still risked it! We stopped at a shop and Kim rented a surfboard for a couple of hours for a really good price!

We had to the drive onto the beach to park which was actually very easy as it was compact sand.

We got onto the beach and Kim was straight in to surf. The waves had disappeared for some reason! Kim tried and surfed a couple of waves, but they then stopped coming at all, so we moved down the road to another part of the beach, where there seemed to be more waves. Kim had a lot more fun here and actually got to surf! Curtis watched on and also saw how much fog was covering the hills.

Kim finished with surfing and we left the beach to return the board.

Once we got the board back, Curtis watched hockey and Kim went out to find some lunch. Once she got home, we had some pizza for lunch.

After hockey finished, we went out to the beach again to see if we could see our new octopus friend, we have named Terry, again.

Luckily, Terry was still there and we said hello to him he also came to say hi and Kim gave him a shell.

We left Terry and went to the shipwreck which was now visible due to the tide going out. There isn’t much there, but it was cool to look at.

The weather improved, too!

We then left the beach, but not before a visit to Terry again.

We drove to KFC and got some dinner there as we were told it is actually good here, so we have it a go. It was pretty good, and we had it whilst watching TV together!

Long busy day tomorrow, but should be fun.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Kaitaia

Place 69 – Day 1: Kaitaia – An Octopus, Crabs & Clever Seagulls

Kim & Curtis Hale

We said goodbye to our HelpX hosts in the morning when they went off to work and then we had breakfast, got ourselves ready and tidied the room.

We left the house after packing the car and drove up to Kaitaia.

Kaitaia is our base town for a couple of things we want to do as it is in the perfect location.

We got to our accomodation, a nice B&B with a lovely pool and it also backs onto a river! The owner was nice enough to let us check in early and gave us some hints. It’s actually a really nice room! A little small, but really nice.

We got unpacked here and went to find some lunch.

We drove down to the town, parked up and walked around. There wasn’t much there, so we got a subway amd drove back to the room to eat it.

After lunch, we went out for a bit of the evening. We are near the 90 mile beach, which extends over a lot of Northland.

We got to a point called Shipwreck Bay, which we thought had a shipwreck there, but we didn’t see anything and we also had to either pay to park there or drive onto the beach, which we didn’t really want to do.

We drove back up the road and found the perfect parking spot (for free) and wandered onto the beach. There were a lot of rocks but we wanted to walk on them, so that is what we did! We walked towards shipwreck bay until we couldn’t go any further! Along the way, we saw fish & a lot of crabs in between the rocks.

As we were about to head back, Kim saw a crab sitting next to the water and took a bit of a closer look, whilst filming, and to both of our surprise, there was an octopus which decided it wanted the crab!

We stuck around this area for a while, watching the octopus move around and hoping it did something else. Low and behold, it did! It wanted to eat a fish, so it grabbed it.

We moved on from the octopus and then saw a seagull swoop down and grab a crab. It flew away with it and then drop it. It then picked it back up again, flew higher and dropped it again. We thought this was accidental but it turns out it was deliberate to try and crack it open, which it did!

We left the beach after walking back and stopped at the supermarket to get some drinks for the next few weeks.

We got back and watched some videos until we got hungry and then we went to one of the few places for dinner. Curtis got a steak with peppercorn sauce and Kim got a fancy chicken burger. Our food was alright but the service was awful so all in all we gave it a 5/10.

When we were back home, we watched some renovation TV shows on the TV we have in the room.

Tomorrow we have a cooked breakfast here at 08:30 so we’ll be up for that!

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Kerikeri

Place 68 – Day 9: Kerikeri – Rainbow Falls

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were up a bit later today, but it was also our last day of this HelpX.

We had about 1/3 of the outside of the house remaining to clean and the same amount of windows inside and out also.

We got all of this done and then had some pesto pasta and watched some TV. After lunch, we got all sun lotion’d up and got in the car to go down to Rainbow Falls, which is a waterfall just down the road from where we are.

We walked down to the waterfall and decided not to go into the water as it was full if very slippery rocks and quite dirty.

We did notice a lot of rocks down stream, so we walked down there instead. We found an area to enter the rocks and then walked down them. We got pretty far, navigating the rocks and trying not to fall in the water.

We eventually ran out of rocks near us so we walked all the way back to the waterfall and headed to the car.

We drove to the supermarket and got an ice cream which was much needed in the hot weather! We also got a doughnut from a local doughnut shop.

Once our host got home, she got our cheese and crackers, so we sat out on the sun eating cheese! A great end to the day.

We then relaxed and talked about our days and then our host made us a delicious spaghetti bolognese!

We watched some of the latest Kong film and then went to bed.

We will probably be leaving here around 10:00-11:00 tomorrow morning.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Kerikeri

Place 68 – Day 8: Kerikeri – Cold Start & Fancy Moon

Kim & Curtis Hale

We were up and ready to go for 08:30. We got the areas we would be working in prepared and then started work.

It was a bit chilly this morning (at least in comparison to the last few weeks) so the shaded area was put on the backburner and we started in the sun instead.

Kim washed the back of the house, which is the largest area with the tallest parts also, so that took quite a bit of time.

Whilst Kim was doing this, Curtis cleaned the inside windows, getting most of them done.

We finished up for the day, showered and Curtis then watched hockey. After hockey, we did some research and then our host came home and we had a chat and they chucked a rotisserie chicken on the BBQ for dinner.

After dinner, which was tasty, there was a blood moon which was beautiful!

We sat down with our host and watched some renovation related TV shows and then it was 23:00 so it was bed time!

Tomorrow is our last day here, but we have enjoyed our time at this HelpX a lot.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale

Kerikeri

Place 68 – Day 7: Kerikeri – Paihia & Russell

Kim & Curtis Hale

We weren’t doing any work today, so we decided to had it out the house.

We had breakfast and got ready, then we got in the car and drove 30 minutes to Paihia.

Paihia had been recommended to us multiple times by many people, so we thought we had to check it out.

Once we got a parking spot, we wandered around the very small place. There wasn’t really anything of note, but we did get hungry so we stopped at a rib place for some lunch.

We got loaded wedges to share, which had bacon, cheese and pepper on.

We finished lunch, had more of a look around and then got on the ferry for the 10 minute journey to another small town called Russell.

A photo from the boat of Paihia

We got to Russell and explored around a little bit. This is only a small place, so there wasn’t much to see again. It is quite old and French in places, so it was worth a look.

We then stopped in at a cafe for a coffee and relax.

We walked a little bit more after our coffee and then re-boarded the boat to go back to Paihia.

We got back and got in the car to go back to the house.

We got back and got some admin done and chilled. The family returned home and we then all helped make homemade pizza! We had a pizza each which was delicious. We all sat and had a chat at dinner and then after the washing up was done, Kim got to have the pet budgie on her finger briefly, until she was pecked!

We went to bed shortly after, along with a delicious whisky each.

This time last year!

Poroporoaki!

– Mr & Mrs Hale