YOLO New Zealand @ Sandboarding Fun

YOLO New Zealand @ Sandboarding Fun - Day 3

As usual, we woke up early in the morning and set off to our first activity of the day, that is, sandboarding fun at Opononi. As we approached the seaside settlements of Opononi, we noticed the immense sand dunes of Niua.

Opononi became famous in 1955-56 because of Opo the dolphin. This name was given to a young bottlenosed dolphin which throughout the summer of 1955 frequented the beach at Opononi, Hokianga, inviting repeated human contact and playing with bathers and children in a manner not previously recorded for a wild dolphin.

Opononi and its neighourboring sister Omapere offer a full range of accomodation and dinning options, making it a great base to discover the Waipoua Forest, New Zeland's largest Kauri rainforest.

Anyway, we had to ctach a boat across the harbour to the giant dunes for dune surfing. It was great fun but tiring to walk up the dunes at the same time. The beach was lovely with very little people around. We felt like this was our little private island! Look at our pictures and you will agree.

We next visited the Waipoua Forest to see New Zeland's largest Kauri rainforest. We had a lovely time walking in the nature's reserve and were pretty much delighted to see such a tall kari tree. It's really a pleasure to spend my time immersing myself in mother nature! This forest is a protected reserve and extra efforts were taken to protect its soil. Visitors had to thoroughly scrubbed their boots prior to entering the reserve.

We then headed towards the Orewa beach, our campsite for the night. Orewa beach is a sandy beach featuring a beach break with several peaks down the beach. This beach can be very busy in the summer with many swimmers around. Overall, I find this beach very picturesque and definitely nice for a beach stroll. Not to mentioned, Orewa is one of the top 10 holiday park in NZ with very clean bathing facilities and toilets. I am actually quite impressed that the beach and the entire park were kept clean with no litters sighted. Singapore has a long way to go before our East Coast or Pasir Ris park can be spotlessly clean as Orewa beach.

Comments

Mauritius, An Island of Emotion

Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeast coast of the African continent. Together with my Diva friend, we travelled to Mauritius in 2014 for our first ever girls trip or what we called as our "Elephant & Hippo Honeymoon". Although Mauritius is an island, the entire island is at least twice bigger than Singapore. Flights to Mauritius are somewhat limited. The airlines that flew to Mauritius include Air Mauritius, Emirates, British Airway and Air France. From Singapore, it took about 10 hours to reach Mauritius, including an hour transit at KL. Despite the long haul flight, I would say Mauritius is worth the visit at least once in your lifetime. I'm glad to have traveled with my Diva friend to this exotic place. Having some photo fun at Changi Airport Having some photo fun at Changi Airport The air ticket for Air Mauritius wasn't cheap. In fact for the air ticket price paid, we could have...

Mauritius, An Island of Emotion @ The Sacred Lake

1. Trou Aux Cerfs Trou Aux Cerfs is a dormant volcano with a well defined cone and crater. It is 605m high and located in Curepipe, Mauritius. Our guide drove us to the viewpoint where we can have a glimpse of this so-called dormant crater. I would say that it doesn't quite look like a volcano crater. However, the surrounding view of the mountainous range was stunning. Drove by a lettuce farm on our way to curepipe The dormant volcano crater The surrounding area in Cure Pipe 2. Grand Bassin Ganga Talao, also known as "The Grand Bassin" is a crater lake situated in a secluded mountain area in the district of Savanne. It is considered as the most sacred Hindu place in Mauritius. There is a temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and other Gods including Hanuman, Lakshmi, and others along the Grand Bassin. The design of the Hindu temple is quite simple and not as elaborate as other Hindu temples. The temple has...

Winter Fantasy @ Furano 2010

Furano is one of the towns in the center of Hokkaido known for its pleasant and picturesque rural landscape. The best time to visit is July where the lavender fields are in the bloom. Nonetheless, we choose to visit Furano in Winter where the white snow covered fields is another amazing sight. Also, during winter, Furano turns into a popular downhill and cross country skiing resort. Where to stay? New Furano Prince Hotel There is a wide variety of accommodation to choose from at Furano. From pensions to B&Bs/Farm houses, to luxury 5 stars resort with onsens, one does not need to worry about the lack of accommodation at all. We stayed at New Furano Prince Hotel, which was an excellent choice. In fact, New Furano Prince Hotel is the most famous hotel in the Furano area. It is a true ski-in-ski-out hotel surrounded by great restaurants, bars, activities and sightseeing choices. New Furano Prince Hotel is the o...

Travel makes my life less ordinary

Search This Blog