• About Me
  • Contact
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food

Lily Blogs Life

  • About Me
  • Contact
April 28, 2016

Bay of Islands

I left the luxury of Pat and Peter’s place to start my 24-day tour of New Zealand at Nomads hostel, Auckland.

Definitely a bit of a downgrade in terms of accommodation standards so far, but I was quite happy to be there after an evening with the group drinking $5 beers. The next morning we set off for the Bay of Islands, about a three and a half hour drive north from Auckland, which was split up with a few stops.

One of these stops was spent at Whangarei Native Bird Recovery Centre, where we met a couple of extremely talkative tuis.

One tui, in particular, reminded me of an eccentric old man with his white beard, intermittently asking us what we were doing, telling us to come closer or to go away, and whistling ‘Pop Goes the Weasel’. Weird.

The highlight of this stop had to be Rob and his one-legged kiwi, Sparky, who we got to stroke. He even scrunched up his eyes when you tickled his ears.

Sparky also liked trying to climb up Rob’s sleeve which, needless to say, was hilarious to watch!

We spent the next few days in the Bay of Islands on a houseboat where I ended up spending far too much money at the onboard bar… although we all departed the boat feeling like we knew each other quite a lot better! We fished off the side of the boat, night-kayaked in the phosphorescent water, and ate BBQ steak. All-in-all, another great experience messing about on boats.

I still feel like an idiot for not taking my GoPro out on the snorkelling trip we did there because we saw at least three very large stingrays along with loads of other fish that we hand fed sea urchins to. We left the boat after a walk up to a viewpoint that showed us where we’d been docked. Pretty gorgeous scenery.

Massive thanks to my lovely friend Bec, who completely saved my ass here after I accidentally deleted all my photos from this part of the trip from my SD card. Smooth!

Never Miss a Post!

0
In Travel
Previous There and Back Again
Next Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Related posts

Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Exploring York

Messing About on Boats

Primary Sidebar

About

I’m Lily, a wannabe Londoner living in Guildford, Surrey and working as Digital Content Executive for a ski company called flexiski. I love to travel and eat and I write about that sometimes.
DISCOVER MORE

NEWSLETTER

Hot Artichoke Dip Recipe

Hot Artichoke Dip Recipe

September 8, 2015

Strange as it sounds, artichoke hearts have always been one of my favourite foods. When I was younger my mum would buy huge jars of them from Costco and I used to stand by the fridge with a fork eating them out of the jar when Mum wasn’t looking. It’s no wonder then, that this […]

Bakerdays Letterbox Cake Review

Bakerdays Letterbox Cake Review

May 2, 2015

So a few weeks ago – in the midst of my university third-year dissertation hell – I received a message from Baker Days asking if I’d like to review one of their letterbox cakes and I immediately cheered up. Little did they know, as I hadn’t tweeted about this previously, I had ordered from their […]

On the Road Again

On the Road Again

April 30, 2016

From Tongariro we travelled south, crossing over onto the south island of New Zealand on the Cook Strait ferry from Wellington. Here we spent another night on live-aboard boat accommodation in Abel Tasman national park, where we were introduced to the joys of the New Zealand sand fly. I kid you not, I am the […]

Bali’s Most Haunted

Bali’s Most Haunted

October 6, 2016

This was an unexpected post, but definitely, the kind of experience I wanted to get down in my blog, so I felt like it deserved its own little corner of the internet. When looking up things to do near Sanur, Tom (one of the friends we’re travelling with) discovered an abandoned theme park, called Taman […]

The Last Five Years At Southwark Playhouse Review (****)

The Last Five Years At Southwark Playhouse Review (****)

March 4, 2020

I was lucky enough to get preview tickets to see The Last Five Years at Southwark Playhouse earlier this week, so I thought I’d write down a few of my thoughts on it. One of my lifelong passions is musical theatre. I’ve always loved the depth that musical theatre songwriting can express that doesn’t often […]

Earl Grey Lemon Drizzle Loaf Recipe

Earl Grey Lemon Drizzle Loaf Recipe

August 22, 2016

It’s that time of year again. The first episode of the new Great British Bake Off series airs on Wednesday night, which, of course, means it’s the perfect time to whack out your rarely utilised, mad baking skills! This cake is guaranteed to impress all your friends and family (if you decide you’re kind enough […]

What can I say... this year has been a shocker, bu What can I say... this year has been a shocker, but I am confident that things are going to pick up in 2021. Looking forward to a new house, running @londonmarathon for @thestrokeassociation, skiing (🤞🏻), Mallorca, and a world where we use the words ‘lockdown’, ‘quarantine’ and ‘unprecedented’ a whole lot less than we did this year! Happy new year from me and mine to you and yours 🥂✨*

*Picture taken during Tier 2 Christmas, please don’t freak out
I feel so lucky to have had the chance to enjoy a I feel so lucky to have had the chance to enjoy a delicious meal at @gigglingsquid last night before Tier 3! 😭 My local Guildford restaurant has just been refurbished and it’s looking lovelier than ever. We went for the festive menu - highlights for me were the spicy beef skewers, duck red curry, and plaintain in coconut milk... but I taste-tested everything and it was all mouthwatering. 🤤 Thankfully, you can still order Giggling Squid’s food on @deliveroo - if now isn’t the time to treat yourself then I don’t know when is! 🎄
Christmas wrapping is (almost) done! 🎁 We reall Christmas wrapping is (almost) done! 🎁 We really went all out this year on gifts and it’s brought me so much joy. I’m not going to lie, it has been a tough month but I am LIVING for all the Christmas sprit right now! Feels like everyone is really embracing it this year 🎅🏻
We weren’t going to get a tree this year with a We weren’t going to get a tree this year with a potential house move on the horizon but I was buying some paint to upcycle a mirror in B&Q yesterday and I saw this 4ft artificial tree for £10 and thought... Oh, go on then! 🎄 We could all use a little extra joy in our lives at the moment. Pjs on, mulled wine mulled and Home Alone at the ready. Happy Friday, folks! ✨
Hands down the prettiest place I’ve ever bought Hands down the prettiest place I’ve ever bought a Christmas tree! 🎄 Sadly we aren’t buying one ourselves this year as there is a *chance* we may be moving out of our flat in December and we don’t want to have to disassemble a real one after only a few weeks. At least we got to go and pick one for my mum, drink some mulled wine and say hi to the alpacas 😂🦙
Lockdown walks and lots of leaves! 🍁 Grateful f Lockdown walks and lots of leaves! 🍁 Grateful for the blue skies on our third day of #Lockdown2 because otherwise we’d be totally stuck inside. The world feels pretty heavy at the moment but we’re doing what we can to stay positive. It’s fair to say, though, that I really miss 2019 😂
Happy Halloween! 🎃 Carved a cute pumpkin, cooke Happy Halloween! 🎃 Carved a cute pumpkin, cooked a nice dinner and now watching The Shining with some snacks. It’s a stressful time for everyone at the moment but we’re trying to make the most of things! Hope everyone’s ok 🧡
This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: API requests are being delayed for this account. New posts will not be retrieved.

Log in as an administrator and view the Instagram Feed settings page for more details.

Copyright © Lily Frohlich · Theme by SheShoppes