We picked our Camper on Thursday morning and decided to have a mad few days driving on the Twin Coast Discovery road through Northland to break us in a bit!! Also we have to be back in Auckland for Saturday afternoon as we managed to pick up some rugby tickets!!

Our camper is called Kaikoura which is a small town in the South Island. It literally translates as "to eat crayfish" and it is suitably decorated with a crayfish on one side and a whale on the other. It is a cool little thing, with a kitchen area at the back, and sofas which change into a double bed. It is pretty comfortable and there is loads of room for the two of us.

We faffed around in town picking up some supplies - we were gonna be "wild camping" for the next few nights!! We hit highway one at about 1pm and headed north for a good few hours until we found a great side-road to a beach for lunch, this was Mangawhai Heads a beautiful spot we even had sunshine!!

We carried on north to Paihia and the Bay of Islands where we dropped off our German friend Carolin. The Bay of Islands was beautiful it was a real shame that we couldn't stay there longer - we would have loved to. We raced on as it was getting dark, looking for somewhere to camp. We passed through Waitangi, Haruru Falls to Kerikeri where we setup camp for the night, next to the Rainbow Falls. We had driven 285km and by now it was dark, first night of cooking dinner was done by torchlight!!

We got up early and saw the Rainbow falls with a cup of tea for breakfast before we headed into Kerikeri to go and see the oldest stone house in New Zealand (not half as old as Nantyglasdwr Farm!!) We drove right up to the most northern point of New Zealand called Cape Reinga where you can see the Pacific Ocean and the Tasman meet creating waves! We also saw the ninety mile beach, which is very long as the name suggests and you can drive along it, except our insurance wont allow us - I was gutted!! We then had to turn around and start the long journey south, finding a little spot to camp in Kohukoha. This time we stopped early enough to cook dinner in the light, watch the sunset and drink a couple of gin and tonics to celebrate!

Another early start this morning to catch the ferry across the Hokianga Harbour to continue our journey south. We briefly stopped at the Waipoua Forest to see the Giant Kauri tree which they believe to be over 2000 years old, it was HUGE! We also saw the Four Sisters, a clump of four kauri trees really close together. From here there was a long drive all the way down the Twin Coast Discovery Highway all the way south to Auckland.

It has been a wicked few days the scenery was amazing, anything from rolling green pastures, with lots of cows and sheep, to beaches, to forest, it truly is breathtaking! But we have rushed a bit to get back to Auckland in time for the rugby match tonight. So in future we will be taking things a bit more steady and stopping of in places to relax, also to save on some petrol!

So we are now back in Auckland for the night to see the rugby, a full report will be following!!

Love A&S xxx