We arrived in Auckland in the early afternoon with no dramas, but the difficult part was to come, trying to find our way to James' house (James had very kindly agreed to let us stay,despite only meeting each other a couple of time about 15 yrs ago!!!) in suburbuan Auckland. Somehow we managed this with no problems at all, and just lazed the afternoon away as we waited for james to come home from work (not actually knowing what he looked like). We waited in th...

Now when people who have been to Rotorua warn you of the smell there, you ind of just think that they are exaggerating, and it wont be so bad ..... BIG mistake. This place really does stink!!! I best explain for those of you who do not know anything about this little NZ town. It is pretty much NZ's centre of geothermal activity, its full of bubblig mud pools, geysers, boiling hot lakes, steaming streams etc etc all of which is heavily centred on the abund...

Ok so this journal is not going to flow as well as others as i am having to write this retrospectively, as the internet has been prettyty god damn awful of late. Hence the distinct lack in contact and photos (most computers accept Sarahs camera but not mine). Anyway, Taupo - our next destination after a brilliant time in Napier (cant remember what i wrote about that, but we met up with Rob and Michelle again on the 2nd night and Rob cooked us all a beautiful c...

Hello from napier, the Art Deco capital of the world - a quick lesson for you all - it was levelled by a massive easthquake in the 30's and rebuilt all in an Art Deco style, and to be fair is quite cool. We arrived here from Welly yesterday afternon after an arduous 5 hour journey (which Sarah decided to sleep though) to be greeted by about 30 mins of sun, followed by dark grey clouds! We were meant to have left Welly at 8am, and set our alarm to get out by ...

WHAT A BLOODY DAY!!! Today has been THE hardest day in New Zealand by far - possibly even one of the most demanding of the trip (with the exception of Sydney nightmare!)!! The day all started well as we got up nice and early to leave Nelson and drop off the car. We left at about 8.45 (45 mins later than planned) and made our way West. The trip was all good and we even spotted a short cut on the map, which would cut the kilometres by a load, albeit going on what...