We had a lovely time with David and Helen at their place, Tananui, visiting Palmerston North on Monday evening for dinner, exploring the hills in the Pohangina valley, seeing Sarah and the twins and afternoon tea in Fielding where David's surgery is based. We left on Wednesday(5th)morning to drive to Martinborough. The gorge was still closed form an accident the day before so we had a detour round to route 2 at Pahiatua, then headed down to the Pukaha Mount Bruce...

We set off for Napier on the 1st, but the best route involved a return to Taupo, which fortunately meant a coffeestop and stocking up with goodies at our favourite cafe, Bodyfuel. The drive to Napier was through forests and mountains and although windy, it was much warmer by the time we reached Napier. We came in through Bayview and had a look at a couple of sites but ended up atanother Top 10 site, the Kennedy Park ,in town. We took a cab to the newly developed ...

We set off for Tongariro on the 30th after stocking up with supplies for lunch from Bodyfuel. Great views as we drove south alongside the lake and later on of Mts Tongariro and Ngauruhoe. We turned off to go to Whakapapa Village, which consists mainly of a very good info centre and the Bayview Chateau Tongariro. After hearing of the conditions on the mountains we bought some warm hats and gloves. Even better views of the mountains and a nice golf course in front ...

Scenic drive to Taupo on the 28th included a stop at the Aratiata Rapids Reserve near the Huka Falls where we waited for the release of water from the dam at midday. Very spectacular transformation of the quiet river into a white torrent. We arrived at the Allseasons Holiday Park (nice site) in Taupo about 1pm, and walked into the town for lunch looking out across Lake Taupo, Australasia's largest lake, surrounded by volcanoes and bush clad mountains. Also visite...

Our first overnight stop in the vans on Sat 25th was at Miranda Holiday Park by the hot springs, overlooking the Firth of Thames. Nice campsite but very busy and the weather was not at its best. We moved off to go to Rotorua but first stoppedat the MirandaShorebird Centre and had a short walk across to the shoreline looking over the firth towards the CoromandelPeninsula. The drive to Rotorua took us through lovely countryside, quite mountainous and very green, ac...