Home to the famous Waitomo Caves (Sir David Attenbourgh filmed here no less) and there equally famous residents, the glow worm!Took part in some black water rafting in one of the caves - this involved sitting on a rubber ring and floating down parts of underground rivers, while admiring the glow worms! Apart from the freezing cold water, it was all rather relaxing.(Did you know that it is actually the poo of the glow worm that glows?! We were only told this AFTER...

Only here for a day and a night. Again, not much to do here unless you like surfing - the nearby Manu Bay has the longest left-hand break in the world!! So there, now you know!As we aren't surfers, this didnt really mean that much to us but it looked impressive nonetheless. Still, at least the hostel had a very nice cat!

There's a hostel for sale here if anyone's interested!?! It's run by a lovely old Scottish couple who are looking forward to their second retirement!Other than that, Hamilton doesn't have much to offer for tourists.

(Visited Kerikeri and St Paul's Rock - some of the best views I've ever seen - along the way).Not much to say about this place other than the fact that it is the "gateway" to the far north - Cape Reinga and 90 Mile Beach (which is in fact only 63 miles long)!!Anyway, rather than join a tour (in which you actually get driven along the beach, amongst many other things), we decided to drive to the Cape. After all, that is why we hired a car in the first pl...

The 1st day of our extended road trip across New Zealand and in a car that has probably seen better days (but at $25 a day, with no excess, who can complain)!!Our first stop was Whangarei with it's rather nice waterfall, before moving on to "the most photographed toilets in NZ"!! Designed by some bloke called Hundertwasser (other examples of his worked can be seen in Vienna and Osaka), we of course had to get a picture or two ourselves. Thankfully no on...