Only 12 days after entering the country, finally an entry for New Zealand!

After leaving Fiji, we were rested, Mike was tanned (needless to say, I was frazzled) and we were looking forward to some of the famous NZ sunshine that we'd heard so much about from other travellers - so it was a bit of a shock to the system to arrive in Auckland to a very grey, cold day. Though what started as a bit of a damp drizzle, quickly escalated to a full-on downpour. Those Kiwi rain drops are something else, let me tell you - it's like God has injected the clouds with steroids. We got thoroughly soaked as we inspected our newly collected Jucy campervan. Already I could see Mike's bottom lip start to wobble - there was a serious danger that he might cry - as our 'deluxe' camper was actually a 1999 van, fitted out with a couple of stained cushions for a bed, a broken heated towel rain (erm, it doesn't ever warm up), a dodgy seal (we mop up the lakes of condensation every morning), dead radio speakers (Mike's getting sick of me singing to him) and filthy crockery - what a treat! The pictures we'd been sent were a far cry from what we actually received, but Mike's having great fun emailing Jucy to let them know just what he thinks of them - poor sods!

Thankfully i'd been forewarned by Phil and Sarah (who did the very same journey last year) that the NZ nights can be cold, so we'd already asked for a spare duvet. As I lay in bed that night watching my breath form perfect little puffs of steam, I was counting my lucky stars that we'd got that extra bit of warmth. I was even more grateful when I woke up to discover a completely numb nose, and toes that may have to be amputated due to frostbite. Maybe that's a tiny bit of an exaggeration, but it was blummin cold, and Mike was whimpering like a small puppy as he attempted to extract himself from the cosy confines of our bed. Deciding to screw the budget, we headed straight back to the shops to stock up on hot water bottles, flanelette sheets and pillowcases, extra bed socks (i'm a regular sex kitten these days), long-sleeved tops, coats and even a timer for our heater so that it comes on automatically throughout the night. We're now infinitely warmer, even if we are rugged up like a couple of OAPs.

Anyhoo, Auckland was great fun. It's New Zealand's largest city, though we couldn't get over the lack of people - the streets are so quiet in comparison to London. Our first impressions were that it's like a large town, with some slick buildings and lots of shopping. We didn't want to explore too thoroughly though, as we're meeting our friend Martin here for a raucous weekend in mid June and we'll be 'doing the sights' with him. With this in mind we took a very leisurely mooch around the city, checking out the shops and cafes in arty Ponsonby, quirky Vulcan Lane and Karanghape Road (or 'K Road' as the locals call it) which is somewhere between being uber cool and uber seedy. We then walked miles and miles in search of the art gallery, trekking through the university grounds and locals parks, only to discover that the building is currently just a shell as it's being renovated - it would have been nice if the information office had told me this when they said it was a 'must see'. Humph. After all that walking we decided to reward ourselves with a glass of NZ's finest sauvignon blanc on the harbour - oh it's a hard life! By this time we were frozen as it was blowing a gale, so we trudged back to our seriously basic campsite for a very haute cuisine meal - peanut butter on toast. When you have to keep the back of your van open while cooking, it's amazing how quickly you downscale your ideas of what makes a corking meal...

Once again we woke up to a gut-crunchingly freezing morning. As we had a very early ferry to one of the local islands, there was no time to waste. So you can only imagine my distress when I turned on the the taps to find that the solar panels had frozen, so there was no hot water in the showers. Not even a dribble. As I stood there in the buff, quietly wondering whether there was any hot water in the men's toilets, I made a few firm resolves. Firstly, I wouldn't be a grubby b***** - I was going to be brave and plunge my poor shivering body into the icy torrents. Secondly, I wasn't stupid - there was no way on earth I could bear the thought of washing my hair in water that was just a touch above freezing. Resolves made, I flew through the shower, squealing like a little pig that was about to meet his maker. It's an experience that I'm not keen to repeat ever again - in future i'll simply put a hotel on the credit card. Maybe my inner princess is fighting her way to the surface of this not-so-grubby backpacker?!

Anyhoo, Mike and I then spent a lovely day drifting around Waiheke Island, a very pretty plot of land that is 20km east of Auckland. As the sun was shining, we kicked off the day with a 'leisurely' stroll around the coast to the edge of town. I promised Mike it'd take less than a hour before he was happily ensconsed in one of the local cafes with a coffee, but it would appear that my map-reading skills are utterly useless and i'd completely misjudged just how far it was. Two hours later we stopped to asses the map and realised that we were still a couple of hours away from town (oops, sorry Mike!) so we stopped to eat our sandwiches and to take in some of the views. The island is gorgeous as it's covered in vineyards and you can see the Auckland skyline in the distance. As we'd now lined our stomachs, we decided a little detour to one of the winerys was in order, though once again my map-reading skills took us an additional kilometre or two - double oops! Ah well, all's well that ends well, as we eventually found our way to Mudbrick vineyard, for a well-wearned glass of vino and some bread and olives - a little piece of heaven. We'd also discovered that the locals were a jolly bunch, and one young farmer-type even pulled over and offered us a lift - what a gent! We politely declined his offer, and made our way to the local bus stop for a whistlestop tour of the island. As the sun was now drawing in, we took a lovely walk along Onetangi beach (so much walking in one day - my poor little feet!) before hopping back on the bus and heading to a bar in Oneroa to try their local brew. A blissful day that ended even better when I discovered we had hot water back in the campsite - yay!

The next day was freezing once again, and once again the hot water had frozen - though I was feeling mighty smug as i'd showered and washed my hair the night before. Oh i'm dead bright - I knew that expensive education would come in handy. As Mike and I packed up our van, the Maori owner of the site - Willie - accosted me and gave me a bear hug to apologise for the lack of hot water. These Kiwis are oh so friendly! We hit the road, and quickly found ourselves in Parakai, an area that benefits from thermal spa waters. We'd decided to hand over our hard-earned pennies to use the communal areas, but we were delighted to find that we were automatically upgraded to a private spa, as some bright spark had accidentally drained the communal pool - lurverly! We stayed in the hot waters until we went wrinkly, then dived into the outdoor pool for a quick swim - which was also toasty warm. The only downside was that this pool was very chlorinated, and I still smell like a public convenience, despite numerous showers... After exploring the windy country roads we headed over to the East coast and stayed at Sandspit caravan park - it's slightly old-fashioned, but the on-site pioneer village was awesome! My only complaint would be that somebody was trying to freak me out, as every time I went into the ladies toilets, the light mysteriously went off - yikes (do these people not know that I have a nervous disposition? My over-active imagination was already conjuring up a scene from a slasher movie!)

The next day was another beautiful (if cold) one, so I dragged Mike up a seriously steep mud track in the Dome Valley forest. Feeling mighty invigorated, we sat at the lookout eating our sandwiches, before scrabbling another kilometre or so up an even steeper, even muddier track. Somehow I ended up with mud up to my knees, yet Mike didn't have a mite of dirt on him. He tells me he was like this as a child, and apparently he put his poor dad through the mill when he refused to get his trainers dirty - Chris, I can only sympathise, as he hasn't changed even now! By the time we got to the bottom of the track, we were ready for the lovely teas that the cafe provided. Our next challenge was to book into the local campsite - Sheep World! The owner is a colourful character, who had evidently drunk a skinful before answering the door to us, and was full of insults for the Australians. Oh dear. Anyway, our campsite was lovely for two reasons - firstly, we had our own en-suite bathroom (oh yes, my inner princess is returning!) and secondly, the farm was full of sheep with hot pink wool. Yes, hot pink - every last one of them. It made for a great photo...

Day 6 of our time in NZ wasn't all that exciting, as it involved lots of driving - even if the scenery was stunning. Poor Mike is having to do all the driving, as i'm not brave enough to take on the beast. It's like a lorry, and has the turning circle of a bus - it even beeps when we put it in reverse! By this time the rain had started to come down again, so we drove through a very soggy Mangawhai Heads, and an even soggier Wapu, which is meant to be a Scottish settlement - at least the weather was appropriate! We then snored our way through a dull 'tourist drive' that took us past an oil refinery, and stopped at the equally uninspiring Whangarei. Boring!

By the next morning we needed some excitement again, so we walked a lovely 3 hour trail that took us from Whangarei, past the river and onto the falls. It was very lush and pretty, and funnily enough, the scenery was very similar to walking in Kent. Bizarrely, it had the effect of making us both mildly homesick, and we've both been thinking about home a lot since then. Mike is even emailing recruitment consultants to prepare them for his return late summer/early Autumn - watch out London!
After our walk we decided that we needed to treat ourselves to some tea and a cake, so I set Mike the task of taking me to a tearoom and art gallery that i'd read about in my guide book. It took us 35km out of our way, but he gamely drove me to Helena Bay, where we had a lovely mooch around the gallery (I wanted at least ten of the paintings, but bought none - oh noooo!) and had a big fat buttery chocolate shortbread cookie - mmmmmm!
Next stop on our adventures was the Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa - now please don't think we've gone completely loopy here, but these toilets are world famous (apparently) and have to be seen to be believed. They're a 'functional work of art', were designed by ecologist and architect Friedrich Hundertwasser, and are constructed from the town's recycled bottles and reclaimed bricks - and they're so pretty! It almost felt wrong having a wee while I was there, but it would have been rude not to...

Post-wee, Mike and I finally arrived in Paihia in the Bay of Islands, which - we're told - is one of the highlights of New Zealand and is meant to be very good for day trips around the islands and dolphin-spotting. Unfortunately for us we have a knack of bringing the bad weather with us, and the clouds were so low that we barely saw a thing. We even stayed an extra day in the hope that the weather might clear up, but the storm that howled around our van that night confirmed that the weather wasn't going to clear up anytime soon. Pants and double pants. We eventually left the Bay of Islands none the wiser as to whether it lived up to the hype, so maybe we'll have to revisit it one day in the future.

The next day we hopped in the van, and after driving just 20kms, found some lovely weather - hooray! After allowing our toes to finally thaw out, we popped into the Makana chocolate factory at Kerikeri to buy some macademia brittle (yum, yum, yum) then drove around the coast to Te Ngaere for a picnic lunch with the most incredible views. This stretch of the road is known as 'Million Dollar View Road', and I can see why. It's just stunning - lush rolling green hills, sparkling bays and crystal clear water - ooooh i'm getting a bit misty just thinking about it! Even the sheep are somehow prettier than usual - they all look so clean! We then carried onto Cable Bay which is equally beautiful, by which time even Mike had gone a bit gooey over his surroundings. After driving a few kilometres we crossed back to the West coast, where we parked up in the YHA campsite. On the upside it was a lovely location, on the downside, the shower blocks smelt like cheese - the less said the better. Unfortunately for us, we'd already paid up our money to stay for two nights, as we were booked onto a day trip the following day to go to the Northern most point of NZ - Cape Reinga. The people on our trip were a very peculiar bunch of misfits - a rather large couple who practically hurled themselves at the biggest cakes during lunch, an American woman who would only speak to the other Americans on the trip, a mother with her 3 sprogs (nice kids, shame about the mum) and a couple of French honeymooners who didn't seem to like each other very much. Ah well, not everyone is as perfect as Mike and I - arf!

Anyhoo, the trip was fab - our Maori guide sang to us all day and was very funny and informative, speeding along the Ninety Mile Beach in a bus was great, the lighthouse at Cape Reigna was spectacular, and watching the Pacific Ocean clashing with the Tasman Sea was an incredible sight. The highlight of the day had to be taboganning down the sand dunes - Mike and I have done this once before in Vietnam, and it was a safe and sedate affair. But these dunes were huge. Massive - and the sand was hard packed. As I hurtled down the dune, clutching my pink taboggan with all my might, I sincerely wished i'd thought to wear some protective gear. And as I did a very graceful cartwheel down the dune, taboggan bashing me gamely on the head, I was questioning whether this was such a hot idea. I eventually found myself looking into the eyes of my rather lovely and equally concerned husband, who had come to investigate whether I was still alive. It's just a shame I had a mouthful of sand, as I couldn't quite convey that i'd actually enjoyed my rather elegant landing. The bruises are testament to just how much fun it was.

I've now realised that this blog is boringly long, so i'll leave Mike to update you on Baylys beach, where we're currently sending this from. So, i'll leave you with the thought that NZ is fab, we're having loads of fun, it's teeth-chatteringly cold, the weather is rubbish at the moment and I have no idea what the Bay of Islands really looks like. Ah well - you can't win 'em all!

Muchos love as ever,

The cold backpackers xxx