Posts

Showing posts from August, 2014

Opal Hot Springs Holiday Park

Image
Opal Hot Springs Holiday Park Opal Hot Springs Holiday Park is located at Okauia.  My friends and I decided to stay in this accommodation due to it's good review in Campermate app.  We also travelled from Cape Reinga, which is a gruesome 7 hours drive to Okauia (without rest), and we're dying to stay somewhere for the night. Aside from good reviews, Opal Hot Springs Holiday Park is close to Matamata.  This is where the famed Hobbit Tour (Lord of the Rings) is held.   Wide Area at Opal Hot Springs Standard Rooms at Opal Map Location Below is the map of Opal Hot Springs Holiday Park.  I've also include additional information to find it quickly over the net: View New Zealand North Island Trip 2014 in a larger map Address:  257 Okauia Springs Road, Okauia, 3471, New Zealand Contact:   +64 7-888 8198 Website:   opalhotsprings.co.nz Opal Hot Springs Holiday Park The lady at the counter is lovely.  She's also the same person that answered the phone for us when we're tryin

Campervan: Jucy Condo

Image
Jucy Condo Campervan at Oakura Beach Holiday Park This is a review of Jucy's Campervan Condo. Travelling can be quite expensive.  Renting a car and booking for an accommodation can easily cost so much depending on the number of days you stayed.  My friend had an idea to try a campervan and just have a powered campsite for accommodation.   A campervan is a van modified to be an accommodation.  Its a 12 seater van (commonly a Toyota) and is modified to have a kitchen, sink, portable toilet and bed.  Our campervan can accommodate up to 4 people.  There's so much going on isn't it?  This is what we did in New Zealand.  We hired a campervan for 10 days and  only needed to a good or the best!) accommodation.  The accommodation we sought are holiday parks.  These holiday parks have different modes of accommodations from powered camp sites, standard (rooms) and a stand alone (studio-type) room.  Since the campervan already a mini accommodation, we only needed the powered camp sites

Lake Matheson, Mirror Lakes NZ

Image
Reflecting the Mirror Lakes New Zealand is a landscape photographer's paradise.  Not only does it have spectacular sceneries, but their distances can be managed by car.  If you're dreaming of travelling within excellent landscape scenery, New Zealand is a place to consider. My friends and I agreed to go to New Zealand last April 2011.  I wasn't expecting too much then.  It's just another country with many adventures.  But as I was getting involved in creating our itinerary, I can see the beauty of New Zealand from the photos on the internet.  If you're interested in our itinerary, please refer to my South Island, New Zealand map itinerary.  It's an 8-day adventure. View South Island, New Zealand (itinerary) in a larger map One of the places that jumps out of my monitor is Lake Matheson, also called Mirror Lakes.  The waters are so calm that it can mirror the scene before it which happens to be Mt Cook / Aoraki, Mount Tasman and the trees!  I never removed this

Whangarei Waterfalls

Image
Whangarei Waterfalls from afar We decided to camp near Camp Reinga for the night, only to find it raining and foggy the next morning.  It's disappointing.  This place is amazing and shooting with sunrise as backdrop would be amazing.  So at 9am, we decided to head back to Auckland and drive all the way to Matamata.  This a long and tedious drive.  It's an estimated 7.5 hours straight from Cape Reinga to Matamata (excluding rest / breaks).   As we drove to Whangarei, we saw a 'Whangarei Falls' signage.  We're already hungry at that time so we first ate before deciding if we're going to visit this waterfalls or not.  Its seemed like we won't be doing anything for the day (7.5 hours drive during winter takes too much time), so we decided to visit Whangarei Falls. Entrance to Parking at Whangarei Waterfalls Map Location In the main Whangarei central, this might just be 10 minutes drive.  It's so close.  You won't miss this even if you don't have a GP