Had another very early start this morning, getting up at 6.45am so we were ready to leave on the Magic Bus at 7.45. Yes, I know that's probably not that early for full-time workers but we are meant to be on holiday! And I'm going to try to make the most of that fact for our final month. That's right, a month today we will be back in blighty, ready for the Christmas build up. So we headed south today bound for Waitomo in The King Country. On the way we stopped of...

Ahhh it's been a good day today! We've started on our Magic Bus journey through NZ and we've crammed loads into the day, totally stress-free - winner! We had a 7.55am pick up this morning from Auckland by our chirpy 20 year old driver (!) Nate, who sounds like he's from New Zealand by way of California. saying "sweet!" after everything. He's a little sweetheart though! Our first port of call was at the Coromandel Peninsula, where we stopped to admire t...

The weather here in New Zealand is officially more schizo than back at home. It can turn from bright sunshine to pouring rain and back again about eight times a minute! I've become adept at whipping out my kagoul at very short notice and Jim even got his mac out for the first time in the entire trip yesterday (vanity preventing him from doing so thus far). We mooched about Paihia for a few hours before catching the ferry to Russell just across the bay, previousl...

Well, the rain finally arrived... It was only overcast and windy this morning so we headed out for a bit of cultural history, walking to the Waitangi National Reserve. It's the place where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by the British and the Maoris, officially making New Zealand a colony of Britain. We had a look around the Visitor Centre, watching the film about the history of the treaty, complete with excellently naff synthesiser soundtrack and am-dram rec...

We've escaped Auckland yippee! We caught the bus/coach up to Paihia in the Bay of Islands this morning and arrived early afternoon. It's very pretty here - it looks sort of tropical which totally confused me as it's not scenery I'd have expected in New Zealand. That's probably a completely ridiculous thing to say though because I suppose the whole point of New Zealand is that the landscape is massively diverse. The bay here is full of... wait for it... islands! I...