Bay of Islands - Worst storm in DECADES!!!

Hello Everyone,

We went to the Bay of Islands this past weekend. Unfortunately the worst storm to hit the region in decades also paid a visit. The internet is down right now so we are using the hotels reception internet. Roads were closed and 6 METRE swells were coming into the bay and Hurricane force winds were blowing boats right onto the land! We tried to go on a tour to Cape Reigna and 90 mile beach but had to turn back because the roads behind us were flooding over! WHAT A WEEKEND! We will post pictures hopefully in a few days. We are both safe back in Auckland now. Back to work tomorrow!

Taking the Overlander Auckland to National Park

Jenn in front of the train at National Park











Jim explaining what the volcanoes would have looked like, if it wasn't raining

Rangitoto Island

Today we took a ferry to Rangitoto Island, which is an extinct volcano that erupted 600 years ago. It is about 300m tall and one heck of a hike!

Auckland from the Summit of Rangitoto
Jenn with the Summit in the background
Coastline around the Island, it's mostly lava rivers
Jenn starting off the 4 hour hike
Jim climbing on the Lava rocks
Lava river
Jenn at the Summit looking down into the 60m deep crater
Top of the Volcano
Looking out into the Hauraki Gulf
Brown's Island
You can see where the lava was traveling from the Summit
The Summit in the distance
Jenn on the way back to the ferry

Lava Cave
Jenn with some red Lava Rocks

Dinner Celebration at Orbit Restaurant

Tonight we celebrated Jenn getting a full time position at Vector! We went to the Orbit restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower for dinner. It is a revolving restaurant so you get a great view of every part of the city...the lamb was EXCELLENT, so were the desserts! Here are some pics

News from NZ

Hello Everyone,

Next weekend we are going to take the Overlander Train from Auckland to Tongariro National Park. Hopefully, the weather will hold up for us as it has been hovering around ZERO degrees here the past few days! Cold weather seems to follow us wherever we go! So keep checking the blog for some new photos. Hope you like the new Layout!

Jim and Jenn

New Zealand Truckers Protest Downtown Auckland

Here is the story from OneNews here in Auckland, followed by a video and photos I shot this morning. They completely shut down all major cities today all over the country, as well as highways. It was something to see!

Truck convoys hit the roads

Jul 4, 2008 8:21 AM


most concerned about motorway on-ramps getting blocked.

Hello from Rainy New Zealand

Hello everyone,
Several of you have been requesting more photos of our travels. We would absolutely love to post photos, however, we have not been traveling or doing anything besides work lately. We will post a few pictures of Jim and his uniform soon, hopefully this weekend. So sit tight and we will try to post some photos when we can actually get outdoors without freezing or being soaked by the torrential rain.
Thanks,
Jenn and Jim