Finally we arrived in New Zealand and picked up our camper van,after an 11 hour flight from K L, on which we tried to sleep but young children kept us awake crying most of the night,but we got here safely. We picked up budget Bertha our camper van and it is very cosy - and quite small but we are coping - so far! We reached our first campsite about half an hour north of Auckland and parked approx 100 yds from the beach, with good views of the sea and lots of local islands, but had a very early night because we were shattered and had not slept in a bed since Sunday night.

Wednesday - we have had a fantastic day driving down from Auckland round the firth of Thames and up the west side of the Coramandel peninsular. The views have been incredible all the way, seen loads of sea birds and Eric thinks he saw a few Hobbits too! We drove, took pictures, stopped for coffee and a wander lots of times, had fish and chips in Kaiaua - the best in NZ apparently! We had Lemon fish and Hoki, which made a delicious change from haddock!! Eric has just bought a fishing rod and we plan to have a more chilled day tomorrow as we meander across the coromandel and down the east side. The weather has been lovely - warm and sunny, but the sun is surprisingly fierce, much more so than in Europe. Stopping in Coramandel town tonight.