From Waitomo we head north, whizz through Auckland (saving it for another day) and drive by on incredibly busy roads, the like of which we've not encountered since Bangkok; we encounter our first traffic jam and are slightly overwhelmed by the number of cars - we haven't seen this many cars in our last 4 weeks in this country in total.

The traffic in New Zealand has got busier as we have progressed from the south to the north. When we arrived even Christchurch seemed deserted, but we later learnt that this was because cars are discouraged from entering the city centre. Quite how they manage this I have no idea, I can't imagine they have a Ken-like toll, even if they did the numbers just don't stack up - it would only generate about $25.32 a week and they'd have to pay more than that to the bloke who collected the money when he got back from lighting the gas lamps.

Since Christchurch we've driven on small windy roads and larger highways, they've all been fairly quiet and at most we've seen a handful of cars at any one time. It's great, but the New Zealanders obviously feel lonely out there on their own in their little metal boxes. So as soon as they spot another lone traveller ahead they bound along at great speed like over-exuberant and affectionate puppies, to greet them and give them the equivalent of a little canine sniff by driving as close as they can to their bumper in a welcoming kiwi sort of way. It's the only reason I can think of why at one moment we are driving along admiring the view and counting the sheep and the next moment, without warning, we have started a veritable conga line of vehicles, all dancing up close to each other in a frenzy of bottom sniffing and yelping. It can have nothing to do with our careful driving of course.

We head up into the Bay of Islands to spend a couple of nights in Mangawhai - a beautiful and peaceful beach and surf spot where the sands are white, the sky is blue and filled with fluffy little clouds, the sea is turquoise and we live in an enchanting little garden chalet for a couple of nights. We go on a long beach and cliff walk with incredible views out to sea, and even more amazingly steep climbs to get to those views. Our chalet was so perfect it even had its own washing machine and dryer so Brian was delighted to get out his pinny, manhandle the starch into submission and scrub away at all the recalcitrant stains in his bedraggled t-shirt collection before going to bed a happy man. With exceptionally clean smalls.