24th Jan Today we left Waitomo for Rotorua. Got there late afternoon and found our hostel - were immediately hit by the characteristic smell - rotten eggs! (from all the geothermal activity and sulphur). Nice! Had a bit of an explore in the evening and found an Irish Pub where we got some dinner and wine and spent the evening watching an Irish Band playing! Met some locals who were nice and had a sing song to the clover song! 25th Jan Today we had a lazy morni...

22nd Jan Today we left rainy Whitianga for Waitomo. Got the bus early in the morning and arrived there about lunchtime. Realised that there was going to be very little but caving to do there - there was one shop, a cafe and a vistor centre! Our hostel was quite nice though and we only had two nights there. The first afternoon we had a walk around (didnt take long) and booked a caving trip for the next day so we could see the famous glowworms! Wasn't much to do i...

19th Jan Got the bus today to Whitianga on the Coromandel Peninsula. Stopped at Mt Eden (a volcanic crater) on the way out of Auckland and got another good view of the city from up there. Arrived in Whitianga (actually pronounced Futianga as we found out when the driver didnt understand where we wanted to go!) in the afternoon after a stop at Cathedral Cove beach which we had to do a half hour walk up and down very steep tracks to get to! a bit energetic for us ...

17th Jan Today we got the bus from Paihia south to Hokianga where we had a one night stop. Arrived about lunchtime - our hostel was lovely, like a little cosy country house. Was up on a hill with a view over the sand dunes in the Hokianga harbour. There were four of us from our bus staying there which was nice (a French girl and an Irish girl). The town itself was tiny, (only about 2 cafes and a garage) but the beach was really nice. We spent the afternoon sunba...

14th Jan Today we left Auckland early and got on our first 'Magic Bus' to take us up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. Had a nice driver called Steve who acts as a kind of tour guide as you go - he was funny as he had a habit of saying 'sweet as' at the end of every sentence - something we've picked up now in our attempt at New Zealandish speak! Bit of a bumpy journey up and down hills and windy roads but we arrived in Paihia about lunchtime (after a brief tea st...