Around NZ, we'd heard masses about Auckland, mainly how it is the armpit of the country. Yes, it certainly is another city, but we thought the descriptions were a tad harsh. Having said that, here we witnessed the most policing! Because modest NZ'ers don't brag about how great they are, which is what Aucklanders do. We had consciously decided to spend only a day in this city. What with Diwali approaching, we decided to train it to give thanks at a Gurudawara...

So it's Labour weekend in NZ and that's the weekend we choose to go to Paihia, up in the Bay of Islands, along with it seems everyone else in NZ. So finding accommodation last minute is a bit of a nightmare, we are greeted with the words no vacancy, no availability every place we try online. Eventually we manage to book a nights stay at the Twin Pines tourist park, phew! Images of sleeping on the beach are averted. Our lovely Naked Bus driver Trent kindly drops...

Here we re-met the crazies Alex and Sarah. We found an open mouthed Alex watching TV, and on seeing us her yelling and screaming all the way to the front entrance made us feel extremely special. Warmth and love. Poorly Sarah was riddled with a cold and was asleep on our arrival. We were potentially meant to go watch a Maori cultural experience in a village all together. Instead we spent the whole night yapping together, over a gorgeous tapas of bruschetta and p...

Still chasing that sun we headed next for Taupo and its beautiful lake views of the volcanic mountains Tongariro, Ruapheu and Ngauruhoe and apparently one of the greatest one day walks in the world, the Tongariro alpine crossing. On yet another Naked Bus and what should have been an easy 2 hr ride into Taupo turns into a drama when a young guy starts having an epileptic fit during the journey. S is fantastic in reassuring him until the ambulance arrives... She's...

We arrived in Napier by night, and took a walk by the water front and in the town centre. Napier is renowned for being the Art Deco Capitol of NZ. The streets and architecture resembling what we'd imagine the USA to be in the 30's. Lovely and quaint. Napier had us back on track with 'chasing the sun'. The sun making it feel as if we're on holiday again! We witnessed a half marathon taking place, the lack of spectator support shocking, with people jogging alone...