We've been here 3 days now and have rested well. We found the expensive thermals and then the cheap ones - guess which one we did? The Thermal village we went to was ran by Maori and is called Whakarewarewa, we saw a staged performance of songs and dances which were good and learnt how to do the hokey kokey in Maori language. The thermals and mud pools were interesting and you could feel how hot and thin the ground was beneath your feet. Took another walk rou...

Yes we know it's spelt wrong. Stayed at a little trailer park here for the night after travelling down from Paiha (lovely little motor stop with good food next door a right bargain for $20 a night) We saw a really big kauri tree called theTane Mahuta (we mean really big it is 51.5 metres tall and the trunk girth is 13.8 metres) on the way and spent ages looking for some falls that were signposted - never found them though. Not much to do here but sleep and eat.

Stayed at a little trailer park here for the night after travelling down from Paiha (lovely little motor stop with good food next door a right bargain for $20 a night) We saw a really big kauri tree called theTane Mahuta (we mean really big it is 51.5 metres tall and the trunk girth is 13.8 metres) on the way and spent ages looking for some falls that were signposted - never found them though. Not much to do here but sleep and eat.

We decided to hire campervan for our travels (this is really a 6 seater minibus with the seats taken out, a 2 plate cooker and 2 bed frames with matresses thrown on them in it and curtains at the windows). Off we set with Paihia (Bay of Islands) as our first destination. Darren did the driving and after 2 attempts we found the recommended campsite - Haruru Falls. The scenes are amazing and we tried to walk some tracks today but due to the wind and trees being b...

New Zealand we have arrived - where are we going? No idea. We are going to look at cars and campers tomorrow and then we are off to ......................watch this space