Well we could not resist coming to Stoke, New Zealand, we drove for about 2.5 hours to get there and got some great photos! Its certainly very different from the Stoke we know!

After we left there we went to go and catch the ferry to take us over to the north island, you have to catch a ferry with the van and it take about 3 hours to get there.

We had no idea once at the other end where we were going so we just chose a road and headed up towards Auckland as we had a bout 1 week to get the van back.

We ended up checking onto a site so that we could shower and get washing etc done and when we found the tourist information place turns out we had landed in just the place that we were trying to find! We had been looking to do the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing which is a 19.4km trek in the Tongariro National Park, you trek up and see steaming vents and hot springs, old lava flows where the volcanos have errupted, water filled craters, emerald lakes and loads more. The trek really was one of the highlights of New Zealand we loved it, it was hard going in places but worth it. At the top you are on a volcano that is still active and when you touch it its boiling! It took us about 6.5 hours and had a great day, even better when we got back to the village and found an internet as Joe found out that Stoke had beaten Tottenham neadless to say he was pleased!

We then headed further up and crossed the geothermal areas this is where you find all of the natural mud baths and hot srpings, we visted a natural park called craters of the moon that was steaming naturally and had loads of huge craters filled with bubbling mud it was very strange!

We then set off to Rotorua which is another famous place where you can see the natural springs etc the only difference here is that whole place smells of roten eggs it hits you as soon as you arrive there its the sulpher that makes it smell so bad. The weather was really bad when we arrived so we traeted ourselves and checked into a motel it was bliss after being in a van for so long! We both had a bath first time since we left it was sooo nice!

Luckily the weather had cleared up the next day so we set off to Auckland to take the van back where we had booked into a backpackers for three nights.

Arrived in Auckland and found the place pretty much straight away its alaways nice when the van goes back with no scratches and we get the 1500 dollar deposit back!

Had a great few days in Auckland just chilling out getting ready for Fiji! We have loved New Zealand it been great looking forward to Fiji now!