We left Taupo for Rotorua on 17th September. The journey only took an hour or so. It was really sunny so we decided to camp to save some cash. The lady at the campsite warned there were going to be thunderstorms but we didn't let that put us off. She was wrong anyway. We set up the tent and headed into town for a look around, a bit of internet and shopping. The town is quite small and smells like egg due to all the volcanic activity. In parks and fields all aroun...

We arrived in Taupo - a nice lakeside town in the middle of the North Island - in the middle of the afternoon after a long bus journey from Wellington. After a short walk we found our hostel and checked in to an eight bed dorm. Once we had unpacked we headed straight to the supermarket for a big shop as we needed to replace all the food that we had left in Nelson (see the Wellington blog). Back at the hostel we had a big lunch, then went out for a look around ...

We stayed in Wellington for three nights. There wasn't much to do there to be honest, however its the first place you land in the North Island, and it is also the capital. We got the ferry ffrom Picton in the south, it took about three and a half hours. It was similar to going on a channel crossing, but the ferry was much smaller. We did go outside for a bit but it was very cold and windy so we didn't stay out long. It was a pretty boring journey. IIn Wellington...

We arrived in Nelson on 2nd September quite late in the evening. The next day we spent preparing for our 5 day hike in Abel Tasman National park. We booked return transport to and from the national park and got several maps. We spoke to the department of conservation and got the times for high and low tide as there as several estuaries that can only be crossed at certain times. We also had to sort out our hut tickets. I managed to pick up some good hiking style t...

After staying in Fox Glacier for nearly two weeks, we had a bit of catching up to do to make sure we had enough time for the North Island. We decided to miss a few of the towns on the West Coast like Hokitika and Greymouth, and head straight up to Punakaiki where we were only going to stay for one night. The bus ride took about 6 hours, but it was a nice drive along the coast, and we went through both Hokitiki and Greymouth on the way. We had a lunch break i...