We arrived in Wellington in the evening and headed to Base Backpackers which is the hostels where all the Kiwi Bus people stay. It is cheaper for us to park in their car park and use all the hostel facilities, than it is to get a pitch at a campsite. Also it means we can socialise with other travellers. However there was no room that night at Base, so they suggested another hostel just around the corner where we could do the same thing there. We cooked dinner a...

When we arrived in Taupo we went to the i-centre but were there 10 minutes after it closed, so went for a little drive trying to find somewhere to stay! We stopped in car park, and luckily spotted a hostel across the road that had already been recommended to us in Rotarura! They had one space left in the car park which was a result and we were still allowed to use all of their facilities! This option is working out a lot cheaper than campsites, the only thing is ...

We had a lay in the next day as we only had a couple of hours drive to our next destination, Rotorua. When we got there we went straight to the 'i-site' which are the information centres they have in all the places. This is where we collect all the brochures of stuff to do in the area and ask where the cheapest places to stay are. We were told we could park in a hostel car park and use all their facilities for $9 which is a bargain. We had also heard that Rotorua...

The next day we had to get up quite early as we had a three hour drive to Waitimo where we had to be for 10.45. The reason for this being we were booked in to do some caving in the famous Waitimo glow worm caves. After checking in and paying $225 (£115ish) for the activity we were taken round to be fitted into our wetsuits, massive white boots helmets and harnesses. There were six people in our group, us three a Kiwi couple who own an orchard in the south island...

Today we got up around 9am, made breakfast then headed to the sand-dunes on '90 Mile Beach' - this beach is actually around 60 miles long, pretty big!! We knew that we could rent a sand-board from 10am so got there for then. The lady told us how to use them properly and where to go, then we set off climbing the huge sand-dunes! It took quite a while to get to the top which was very tiring as they really are massive! We looked out over 90 Mile Beach and down the...