We were not quite sure what to expect from Ork land otherwise known as the North Island and Auckland (geddit?!) as everyone always raves about the South Island and says not to bother with the North so much, and for the first few hours driving up from Wellington we thought perhaps they were right, but the North Island had several jewels waiting for us to discover them. We started off driving up as far as we could and hoped to just pull off the road but due to very...

We picked up what was to be our home, kitchen and transport for the next 4 weeks and drove off into the sunset ready to explore New Zealand in the campervan. We started off in Christchurch but went very soon to the Banks Peninsular where sparkling waters and rolling hills made New Zealand appear like a very nice, sunny version of the English Lake District. We stayed in Pigeon Bay and then scooted off to Mount Somers. Here, we indulged in a long walk through rolli...