Our next journey did not involve buses, or any other form of public transport, because Gerrard and Ania's friend Beth drove us from Rotorua to Taupo. However it did involve a loan car that would fail any inspection into it's road worthiness. The front passenger window was jammed open, the headlights needed a fiddle before coming on, and the speedometer worked in ball-park figures rather than precise numbers (and even that required the driver to give it a forceful...

Rotorua smells. I could leave the post as that but we have been here for nearly three weeks and have got quite a few things worthy of a mention. When we arrived in Sulphur City we headed straight for our hostel - The Funky Green Voyager - and checked in to our cosy dorm with (possibly) the best mattresses in the southern hemisphere. Our friend Candace cheerfully welcomed us as she had stayed there the previous night. The hostel came highly recommended by severa...

Kia ora, Blogites! As you can probably tell from my masterful use of the Maori language, Steph and I decided it was about time that we embraced a true cultural experience. Conveniently enough the next stop on our Stray tour was Uncle Boy's place in Maketu - what a stroke of luck! 'Uncle Boy' doesn't sound like a traditional Maori name, but our driver assured us that this was as close to the real Maori experience as we are ever likely to get. So when we rocked u...

When the next Stray bus arrived we were a little disappointed. I won't go into detail but the passengers were a bit.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... .....the most exciting thing that happened on this leg was when we stopped for a toilet break. Steph and I went off looking for a phone box to book a hostel and crossed a petrol station to find one. We strolled past a car with something strapped to the boot with rope. It was a sizeable hog with a single slit down its stom...

After the beautiful Bay of Islands we headed to Hahei by means of our Stray bus. If it weren't for a few unique natural wonders Hahei would be a pretty nondescript seaside settlement with very little to do. There is just one shop. The driver took us to Hot Water Beach which is a beach with hot water funnily enough. It's not the sea which is hot though, it is the water that seeps up through the sand at a small section of the beach to which the name refers. Unfort...