Last night was awesome, but I’m paying for it this morning. After breakfast, a lot of water and an aspirin I’m feeling better. I decide to go for a walk into Paihia to see what was going on. Turns out not much, it’s a really small town. However most of the tours and activities leave from here into the Bay of Islands. There is even a helicopter parked on the beach waiting to take people for rides!
Category: Travel
Paihia Party
Out of auckland, if you want to head north, you take the State Highway 1. It’s really the only road to get you clear of the sprawl and is much like any other highway. But soon this generic road turns into a (moderately) high speed roller coaster of a road. Its sweeping curves loop around the geological features and farms. It looks uncannily like middle england except as a dream your remembering where everything is picture post card pretty and the roads ripple like a ribbon into the distance. It even lead to Snells Beach in my fantasy.
Tiha Ducati Ha!
Once again I’ve chosen a non-typically good looking bike, a Ducati Multistrada 1000DS… Its got a strange nose, much like my Versys, but I love it.
Strolling Through Sky Town
I like to learn the history of a place, but I’m not a fan of guided tours. Not so much the tour, but having to share street space with a group of tourists. I find it incredibly annoying and rude watching a group of people all taking the same photo, that you could have found on google, while a guide is trying to tell you the history of a place. People who basically walk around with their cameras in front of their faces documenting EVERYTHING aren’t actually experiencing anything more than life through a camera screen, so they may as well have stayed at home!
Bathroom Plans
As a bloke, it’s an unwritten rule that you don’t talk to each other while in the bathroom. No one wants to be addressed whilst holding their junk. And for good reason, the automatic response is to turn and face your new friend, which you wouldn’t keep very long if you were mid flow…
New Adventures
I decided to quit my job and travel.
Its been a long time coming but ultimately it came down to realising I’m only going to be young once. And, if I don’t get out there and give myself the opportunity to star in life’s stories, I’m not going to have any to tell when I’m old!
Hooternannys
We had chosen to stop at a caravan park last night because we thought it prudent to shower before meeting our friend for a night out. After 4 nights wild camping with only a brief dip in the ocean to quell the growing stench, we could not have chosen a better place. The campsite facilities were amazing with actually hot, powerful showers and decent washing up facilities.
Ice Bath
There is a joke in England that throughout the ages, after all the clan wars were done, the political arguments settled and the bar brawls ended, the border to Scotland is actually demarcated by the sudden absence of the midge. A vampiric little blighter that serves no other purpose than to make the inhabitants of Scotland want to peel off their skin for the itching. Luckily, up to this point we have avoided them. However I think this morning they had a meeting and realised they had let us slip past so converged on us in mass at sunrise. Buzzing around the van, there was a midge cloud so thick you could have described it as midge soup. Instead we chose to drive away and fix breakfast somewhere less dangerous for our skins. They must have been so annoyed not to even get a taste of our exotic southern blood.
#VanLife
Grey misty weather greeted us, like a fluffy throw that’s been left in the summer house after a rain shower. It was dank but still comforting as the warmth of the sunshine attempted to start the day. In the words of a young boy from skye, “What makes a great view – distance”. The clouds smothered any hope of a view from the top of Old Man of Stowr and as beautiful the coastline is, there was no distance to be had this morning.
The V-Dubbers
Today was a mixture of complaining about our various aching body parts, and groaning in pleasure at the views we were treated to as we trundled past. After a leisurely breakfast of bacon butties we packed up the van.
It had been a very successful first couple nights in the van. Some of my fears had been dispelled; there was no leaking from the roof, it didn’t rock in the night with the wind to wake me or make me feel sea sick, and it was definitely warm enough. Also, most of the day was spent with the windows and doors open which means, so far, we haven’t had any condensation or damp issues. This was something I had taken great care to avoid so I am very happy its worked.