Chris and Charly Down Under - chrischarly

Hello Public Transport and Bye Down Under Blog...

chrischarly — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Did a final tidy-up of the car and packed the rest of things before Rick came at 11am to collect his new car and give us $1500 cash. Will miss that little car! Katie, the manager of the campsite we were staying in kindly gave us a lift to the bus stop for our 4 hour journey to Auckland to meet up with Sam, a girl we met travelling in Borneo. The bus journey was pretty painless but no chance to keep yourself occupied reading books as he drove too fast around the tight corners so I felt a little sick. When we arrived in Auckland it was a bit of shock as it was pretty chaotic and busy as it was the last of rush-hour but we found a bus pretty easily to Sam’s although we did get off a couple of stops too early as Chris was a little keen. Then, just a short walk to Sam’s where we were delighted to take off our heavy backpacks as they are so crammed full of stuff and we are just not used to carrying them anymore! After a quick catch up with Sam we went for a few drinks at her local before eating some tasty food at a Mexican down the road before retiring to bed at 10pm as she unfortunately had to get up early for work. Super-comfy bed and it was nice to not shiver to sleep! This is the end now of ‘Chris and Charly Down Under’ as we are off to Fiji tomorrow for some much-needed Sunshine!

Car= sold, finally!

chrischarly — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Walkway

We actually had a busy day today! Woke up at the crack of dawn (8am) and quickly got ready and drove to Whangarei as I had a doctor’s appointment. It took about 1 ½ hours to get there and I was in and out pretty quickly. We then had to do some shopping for the Pacific Islands, which included buying a new pair of shorts and swim shorts for Chris and a pair of trousers for myself as all mine have holes in! We then went and searched out some bargain snorkels and fins as well as some reef shoes for 4 months of snorkelling and a new day bag as ours has a gaping hole in, which Chris managed to get the guy to knock $25 off (with him thinking it was $15 as he couldn’t add up properly! Haha!) Then, just time for a quick hair-cut for me before driving back to seal the deal with the car sale. When we got back, Dick the owner of the campsite we’ve been staying in said he has another friend interested in buying the car and was coming to have a look at it in 5 minutes so we hurriedly emptied and tidied the car and he came, seemed interested, left and later text us offering us just $1300 for it. No way. So Chris replied saying he wanted $1700 followed by an hour’s wait before he responded with $1500 and not a penny more. So of course, Chris tried his luck one more chance and said $1600 and we would have a deal and we were in a stalemate with him for a few hours before Chris finally caved in and accepted $1500, cash and he sorts all the paperwork. So the dealer has some bad news! Oh well, he shouldn’t have messed us around! The rest of the afternoon consisted of us unpacking the contents of the van into our backpacks, involving many items to be thrown away to make this task possible. Then, at about 9pm we had 1 text and 1 email enquiring about the car! How irritating! Why couldn’t they have just asked us earlier or yesterday! But it is done now and I have had enough thinking of this car. So much hassle and stress, time to just enjoy our last couple of days in New Zealand now before going to Fiji!

Another headache from trying to sell our van

chrischarly — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

A bird

A few days ago we had an offer of $1500 for our car from a dealer just down the road where we are staying. Rubbish price, but it is now low season so no one is buying and the dealer is obviously clearly aware of this so is going to hold out and sell it in a few months when it is high season again so will more than double his money. Cheeky, but understandable and if I were in his position I would do the exact same.

A load of birds on a little island

So Chris went off to go and see him this morning as it is now our last option as no one else seems interested but he wanted to check it over as well, which is a pain. He found that the brake pads are seriously worn down and the bushes which affect the suspension need replacing and he is baffled as to how they ever passed the WOF. So, of course he haggled us down even further but luckily just to $1400 before having the cheek to ask us to leave him with enough petrol so he could run around in it. Yeah right, as if that is going to happen!

11+km walk

chrischarly — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The walkway

Chris stood by Haruru Falls

A fish and chip restaurant

The beach

Somebody else called about the car today! So we excitedly rushed around tidying it and again he wasn’t interested and instead wanted something bigger. Not long ‘till we fly out now, so better get something sorted, quick. But it was a gorgeous day today so we went on a 11+km walk on the same track as the other day but to the end to Waitangi and back the road way. Which was great and gorgeous but exhausting, then had a tasty dinner before enjoying having the campsite to ourselves once again. It’s like our own private House.

A load of rain, again.

chrischarly — Sat, 24 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

It poured and poured and poured with rain today, so we did nothing again.

Slim Chris!

chrischarly — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Slim Chris

As it wasn’t raining again today Chris decided to head off fishing and came back empty-handed, of course! Had someone interested in the car and so came to have a look at it, but unfortunately they wanted a manual. What a pain… But check out how much weight Chris has lost! We have been carrying this T-shirt around with us since Chris' mum brought it with her to Sri Lanka and now he can finally fit into it and comfortably! So proud of him! :)

SUNSHINE!!

chrischarly — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Haruru Falls

View on the walk of the river

Haruru Falls

OMG, woke up to Sunshine! What a lovely Surprise! So I got straight up and took a walk down to Haruru falls which due to all the recent rain were flowing super-fast and then took a 5km walk down one on the tracks alongside the River and sea before coming back pretty exhausted as I stupidly didn’t take any water with me and although the temperature of the day was just 24 degrees the humidity was 85%. The rest of the day Chris and I didn’t do a lot, made a couple more calls to a few people to see if they would be interested in our car and chatted to some other people staying at our campsite.

....

chrischarly — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

See Tuesday 20th March!

Severe flooding

chrischarly — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Still bad weather, did nothing once again. The whole of the North Island has been hit really badly, especially where we are in [[New-Zealand/Northland]], severe flooding and roads closed everywhere. So we are stuck where we are for the time being! Which, to be fair is a good excuse for us to do nothing as no one wants to face the outdoors in this weather.

A T.V. and sofa day

chrischarly — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Relaxing from the rain

The big storm hit overnight and was very wet, we left our cool box outside and open and when we got up it had around 25cm of water inside. Glad we chose the camp we did, as the one below us on the River was flooded and everyone had to leave! We settled in front of the TV and didn’t move all day.

Another huge storm...

chrischarly — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Once again we woke to pouring rain, packed up and headed out. Found refuge at a café in Keri keri and worked on our onward travel plans for a while before driving to Paihia to find a campsite with a lounge and a kitchen inside away from the weather. We found a nice one slightly outside of town and settled in for the storm.

Purple jellyfish

chrischarly — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

From our campsite to the beach

Nice coastline

The sea

Jellyfish

Enjoying the camp we are in and the sunny weather, we decided to stay another day and did bugger all except another walk on the beach. We were planning on a swim but the beach was covered with purple jellyfish so decided against it, so just plain sun-worshipping it was.

Nurse Chris

chrischarly — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

I have a stinking cold, and everything aches and hurts, so Chris is busy looking after me and doing a great job of ‘playing nurse’. We headed out of our campsite and straight to another, with an equally nice beach to walk on, which we did.

The tip of New Zealnd

chrischarly — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Chris driving on the beach

Driving on 90 mile beach

We decided to drive to the top of mainland New Zealand today and luckily the weather was nice. On the way we took the car for a quick spin on 90 mile beach before driving as far as we could to Cape Reinga and had a nice walk to the lighthouse, and whilst not the furthest point North, it was pretty close.

Coastline

Views from the lighthouse

Lighthouse walkway

Lighthouse

The view down

The top of mainland NZ

Then we found a really nice campsite, which is supposed to be the most Northern one followed by a nice walk on the beach and yes you guessed it, more trout for dinner.

Yummy brekkie

chrischarly — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Brekkie

Chris cutting the fish into steaks

Rainbow trout and scrambled eggs… What a perfect start to the day! And there is plenty more trout for another few meals yet. Probably get sick of it by the time we’ve finished it! Spent far too long sitting in a library trying to post adverts about the car everywhere we could in the hope that someone might want it. Then we headed to a free campsite to eat yet more tasty trout, this time in a curry.

THE BIGGEST TROUT IN THE WORLD!

chrischarly — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Sunset

We were so excited today to get our first text about the car! So we went and found a café to sit and email them, only for it to dawn on us that this is an obvious scam. What a waste of time. Idiots.

Chris going for a swim

No other emails or phone calls for the rest of the day, but I suppose there’s still time. So we got in the car and drove for about 4 hours North of Auckland in search of a campsite and managed to find a great one alongside a beautiful lake where Chris went for a swim.

Chris' monster of a trout

After dinner he decided to try his luck at a bit of fishing although the water was Crystal clear and very shallow. I have to say that I did doubt his luck so waited behind tidying and washing up. Then just before the sun set I heard footsteps walking towards the van and was amazed to see Chris holding something huge. OMG it is a fish! The biggest trout I have ever seen and Chris was so happy it was hilarious. Shame we had just eaten, but with a bit of re-organising and pushing managed to fit it inside our chilly bin. Look forward to breakfast in the morning!

Anyone want to buy our van???

chrischarly — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Forest walkway

We figured that in order to be able to sell our car before flying out to Fiji that it would be best to get a WOF done which is a New Zealand version of an M.O.T. We were taking some risks by getting this done as it doesn’t run out for another month and the chances are that there are quite a few things wrong with it, but who would buy a car without one we thought. So we booked it in, kept our fingers crossed and luckily it passed after adjusting and replacing a couple of lightbulbs! So we were really happy. Now for selling the car! So we hit McDonalds to drink lots of coffee and use their free Wi-Fi and to start advertising. We then headed west to stay in another nice beachside campsite, and yes you guessed it, it rained, so we did bugger all once again. But does anyone reading this want a Toyota Estima ???

Batt Flattery

chrischarly — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

The beach

Woke up, packed up and got into the car… Click Click… nothing… Flat battery. Great. This isn’t the first time either, over the past week we’ve had to suck up to 3 other campers to help us jump-start the car. So first stop today will be to buy a new car battery. Not ideal to spend money on a car we will only have for a couple more weeks. Plus it is a Sunday so no Breakers will be open to buy a second-hand one. But we did find one for a reasonable price of $99. After this, we decided to head across the Coromandel and see what the weather was doing. It was raining, Surprise, so decided to keep moving towards Auckland, finding a camp about 1 hour from the city in a nice park. In between showers we did manage a quick walk up the beach, but other than that it was pretty much a dull afternoon hiding from the rain.

Hot Water Beach

chrischarly — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Cathedral Cove

We went to Hot Water beach today, which as the name suggests a lovely beach where there are hot freshwater springs under the beach. This brings literaly 100’s of people at low tide with spades in hand to dig their own hot pools.

A load of tourists

We chose to observe from a distance thus avoiding the crowds instead taking a lovely long walk the stretch of the beach and back.

A bird, I think from the seagull family

Nice beach

After hot water beach we headed to Cathederal Cove, which is ‘The Highlight’ of the Coromandal. On the signs from the carpark it said this walk was ‘Easy’ and takes 50 minutes each way. So we set-off from the car thinking we would make it there and back in under an hour if we were quick, stupidly without water or sun cream. We stopped at the first point, Gemstone beach which was a long way down off the track.

Awesome beach

Cathedral Cove

Me walking on the beach

Wanting to remove the climb back up we decided to rock hop around to the next place to see Stingray Bay – this took a lot longer, well over an hour and was a lot harder considering I was wearing my useless $1 flipflops. We then walked up to the track tired and thirsty before continuing on to Cathedral Cove, which was well worth the walk as it was beautiful, although we had a long steep climb back to the car. After this we decided we needed something to eat and somewhere to camp up for the night after our long 4 hour walk. So we treated ourselves to a paid campsite and a nice shower for $25.

Another successful day's fishing!

chrischarly — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 00:00:00 GMT

Chris fishing

We had a flat battery this morning so Chris had to go and find a friendly camper with jump leads. After getting going we went to Pauanui , Chris bought some sea fishing tackle and we went for a fish off the beach and then the pier.

Killing dinner

He had just bought a spinner and some hooks, thinking of giving it a little go, but after chatting to some other locals they kindly left us with the rest of their pilchards for us to use as bait.

Fish number 2

Chris setup off the wharf and we had a good afternoons fishing, including catching 3 kahawai, but unfortunately it should’ve been more but some got away,

Chris and another fish!

and I was even there to witness it this time. It was all very eventful. As the tide came in about 4 stingrays came swimming in under the wharf, they were massive and very elegant in the water and we heard that just 2 weeks ago they saw some killer whales in the harbour and I am gutted we weren’t there to see them! But the fish was tasty nonetheless!