Quick update from Ninety Mile Beach from where we are at the moment! we are leaving tomorrow to hand the camper back in Auckland, will be so sad to leave this country! This is what we have been upto:

Nelson treated us well - allowed us to catch up on a bit of culture (if you can call going to the cinema to watch the new Harry Potter movie culture…). We spent a sunny day wondering around the Queens Gardens, and to an early morning crafts market, with all the local artists from this region coming to sell their work (and lots of yummy local liquorice and fudge!!), before a quick trip to the (Chapter-like, mum you'll understand!) Suter gallery to check out some exhibitions and the cute little café.

We then headed deeper into the Marlborough region and wine country! We had a fantastic first day driving around the Marlborough region through some of the vineyards. First stop was Sean's favourite - Montanna, and we also visited the Cloudy Bay (really yummy), Hunters (a really popular one with gorgeous gardens and a live-in artist) and a boutique vineyard, Bouldevine. Sean was doing all the tasting, as I was doing all the driving (fantastic), but I did get to sip enough to change my new favourite wine to Pinot Gris. Sean kept saying 'there's not a wine I don't like', but he still sticks to the Sauv Blanc from Montanna being his fave - so it was a productive day! But it wasn't just wine we tasted, we went to an amazing 'gourmet food' testing session, with fantastic vinigrettes and chutneys, and even to a chocolate factory! The day was kind of ruined when I decided to traumatize myself on another unsealed, ridiculously windy road, to try and find a free campsite we had seen advertised, only to turn back (in tears...the road was that dodgy) - but it did mean we got to see (what we think was) a meteorite! Don't laugh…it was like a huge shooting star, and dropped really quickly fading out in to two balls - was mental! But they do say Marlborough skies are the clearest skies in the world.

The drive upto Picton was beautiful as ever (I know I've probably used the word beautiful more since traveling than I have the entire rest of my life, but its not my fault this place is so stunning!). We went via Havelock across the Queen Charlotte drive - this goes along the northern coast, which is (like Milford, but slightly less dramatic) full of the amazing Marlborough Sounds, bays and coves, going out to the sea. We were literally stopping the van every 100m for another beautiful viewpoint so it took us hours! We eventually arrived in Picton, a cute harbour side town with a really warm feeling to it (could have been the beautiful sunshine weather we had again!), where we got the boat over to Wellington, along the Queen Charlotte and Marlborough sounds. We drove through to Waikawa, a smaller town along the sounds where we camped up for the night after a really relaxing Sunday stroll down to the beautiful marina, beach and Waikawa bay. But there's nothing like seeing the Marlborough Sounds from the water, and so getting the boat over to the North Island is always a magic trip on a clear day…or clearish, it was pretty cloudy by the time we got into Wellington, but the views out of the sounds were beautiful.

Once again, we seriously landed on our feet as far as staying with friends goes - we stayed with our friends Carole and Bill's other daughter (Sara was in Christchurch and her and her husband treated us amazingly), and now Vanessa and her boyfriend Josh put us up in their amazing house in Wellington. For a starter house, it was unbelievable, with stunning views right over Wellington city and Oriental bay. They were fantastic to us again, fed us amazing meals, let us do our washing, bought me all the 'special needs' food and were just too kind. It was really lovely to catch up as I hadn't seen Ness for about 10 years, and we had dinner with some of their friends, even made mates with their cats…really lovely time with them. We spent a day checking out my favourite New Zealand city - Wellington, with its European feel, café culture and fantastic shops (if only we weren't on a budget…)! It was a pretty cloudy day, but it was still nice to go up the cable car to the Botanic Gardens and have views over Oriental Bay and Beach, funky little Cuba street and Civic Square. The highlight was a trip to Te Papa Museum of New Zealand - a really cool museum (as far as museums can be) with all the history of Maori, New Zealand, all the geology and earthquake simulators - there was so much in there you could spend days wondering around.

After another fantastic meal with Ness, Josh and some friends, me and Sean drove off to Napier on the east coast of the North Island. (BIG thank you to Ness and Josh who were amazing and looked after us…as always...so great! Truly blessed). Napier is a cute coastal town, the 'Art Deco centre of the world', with some really interesting architecture, and a nice seafront on Marine Parade. Passed through what I remember as typical North Island scenery on the way, really lush green hills and lots of sheep, with the odd dramatic gorge here and there! We then headed on to Taupo, via some really great beaches and scenic roads. Taupo is set around Taupo Lake, a huge and very pretty lake, which, when its not as cloudy as it was for us, you can see Mt Rapheau and Tongariro National Park across it. Still, a scenic spot for a New Zealand 'Steak'n'Cheese' pie lunch! (Where incidently we got chatting to a local who was transporting three baby goats back to his farm, they were surprisingly cute all wrapped up in his boot!) We then toured some of the geothermal spots around Taupo, including the amazing Craters of the Moon (imagine huge craters with boiling mud and sulphurous steam pouring out!), some great viewpoints of Huka falls along the river, but the highlight was the (FREE!) hot stream leading into the river. It was so boiling, I was even down to my bikini in Winter, and was amazing to relax in the hot water. We found a free campsite further along the river, before heading onto Rotorua the next day.

Woke up early and headed to Wai-O-Tapu geothermal area - a really fascinating area, and the most colourful in the region. It was filled with craters, boiling mud pools, waterfalls, geysers and lots of sulphur gas! Highlights were the 'Devil's Ink Pots' - really colourful pools, from orange to purple (with so much steam coming off them you got wet walking through it!) and the Lady Gnox Geyser, that erupted upto 20m high - very impressive to watch. Walked around the 5km loop, and the crystals that formed in this really active area were so colourful and interesting. The drive to and around Rotorua - a geothermal city with a huge Maori influence, was really great too. We stopped off at Lake Rotorua, and the Maori town, before driving around it to Tuteus falls -the largest falls you can white water rapid down at 7m (don't worry - not that much of a geek to know that, we met some lovely Maori girls who were working for the rafting company taking pictures who told us!). We were lucky enough to see a few rafts go down (and flip) the falls. We also went to Hanama Springs, New Zealand's largest (and beautiful) fresh-water spring - I tasted the water (against Sean's advice!) and it was delicious! Eventually arrived in Tauranga - a beachside city (which just recently won New Zealand's 'Best Pie' award, so Sean was excited!) with some beautiful beaches and ports. We drove upto Mount Maunganui, along Ocean Beach (really lovely to see white sand again!) before camping up at a great little spot. A really busy, but amazing (and smelly…sulphur!) day.

From Tauranga, we drove up the East coast of New Zealand, upto the Corromandel Peninsula, an amazing area full of lots of white sandy beaches which we stopped off at (half the day in the sunshine, the other half in tropical storms!) We made it up to 'Hot water beach', where there are hot springs underneath the sand, and so you can dig a hole and reach hot water - like a beach bath! We stopped off and did a nice walk around Long Bay in Corromandel itself, and then headed down the other side of the coast towards Thames before cutting across into Auckland. This area of New Zealand, on the 'pacific coast highway' is so beautiful, and with only a few days left, we just didn't want to leave…especially after we tasted New Zealand's 'Best Pie' (voted a week or so ago), Sean fell in love and had to be dragged out of the shop!

We pretty much drove straight through Auckland and its very rich and nice North Shore suburbs (with a fantastic view back of the city from the harbour bridge) so we could head up North. Auckland is very similar to Sydney, surrounded by water with bays, coves and lots of boats! We drove up the East coast past some beautiful beaches, Orewa, and the Mangawhai heads with stunning Langs beach and Waipu cove, before reaching Whangarei, a large harbour town south of the Bay of Islands, with a great mountain walk to view the harbour and Bream bay. We continued up the coastal road to the 'Bay of Islands' - a beautiful bay with many islands off shore, shrouded in Maori history and legend. The two coastal towns on the bay, Pahia and Russell, both had really peaceful vibes - we took the passenger ferry between the two and it was really nice to get out on the water again! Its also the sight of the Waitangi treaty, handing the Maori's land back to them, set out in a really interesting area. We kept going further up the coast past some beautiful white-sand beaches at Whangaroa and Mongonui harbours, and upto Coopers beach and Cable Cove - you can just imagine these would be the places you'd want to come for a kiwi, and quiet, summer holiday! Our highest point was up the Karikari peninsula to the stunning Maitai bay. We literally didn't want to leave this secluded place! Two twin bays, absolutely beautiful and completely deserted, with amazing headlands - I'm guessing the sunshine (we were actually in t-shirts in Kiwi winter - bizarre!) helped the sparkle, but it was one of the most beautiful places I had been.

We wanted to get all the way up to Cape Reinga (the northern point of New Zealand, where the Tasman and Pacific oceans mix crazily), but we didn't have enough time to make the 100km drive up there and back. Still, we got to a point on ninety mile beach to catch some views. This is the kind of thing that could only happen in New Zealand - it's a 90 (well I think its actually more like 70) mile long beach, going all the way up to Cape Reinga….but it's also a highway. Yes, you're legally allowed to drive on this beach upto 100km/h! Of course, rental vehicles aren't allowed (and that's not just because you'd get stuck…the tide changes so quick it has been known to take a few cars with it!), you'd pretty much need a decent 4WD to make it anywhere, but it's a pretty cool concept! A quick jog was all we were ever going to manage on it, but fun all the same! (ps.we stopped off at some 'world famous' (apparently) toilets on the way north, that even mum would be proud of! Look for the crazy photos!)

Will be updating the final time from New Zealand in Auckland, hope you're all well, keep in touch and feel free to post messages on the board!