We didn't see any Kiwis the whole time we were here. That was a little disappointing, but we did see plenty of sheep and all kinds of other fun stuff along the way. We rented a campervan that was suited for two and a small child, and toured the Northern part of the North Island of New Zealand. It was a little bit of a tight squeeze, but we learned to make things work. The first challenge was driving on the opposite side of the road on the wrong side of the car and shifting the manual transmission with my left hand. It made for some excitement. I think that Ashleigh and MIL (thats short for mother-in-law) were more scared than I was. Because we had no agenda, we were able to just cruise and make stops wherever we felt like.

One of the first place that we went to was some hot springs where they had a ton of pools and slides and stuff and even a movie pool where we watched some rugby.

We continued up the East coast and stopped at some wineries for some tastings and I found a few spots to get a taste of the waves as well. We stayed at parks for a few nights, and when we needed showers we would stay at a campsite. There was one spot where we had a little campfire on the beach.

At the Northern part of the Island, there was a little town called Russel that we took a ferry to where we enjoyed some great fish and chips. As we made our way towards the West coast, we went to a spot that was supposed to have really good waves. Since it was flat, we found a bunch of mussels on the rocks and made a great linguine dish that night.

The next day we took a tour to the tip of the Island called Cape reinga. There was a beautiful lighthouse there and we got to do some sand sledding on our way back down the ninety mile beach.

On the West coast, we headed back pretty quickly to get Nancy back to the airport. I got to surf at a place called Balys Beach on the way back down. The landscape here was so nice.

After MIL headed home, Ashleigh and I went down to a little town called Raglan where we met quite an eclectic group of travelers at the campsite. It was raining out, so everyone was in community center playing games. We made friends with three Brazilians, two Swiss, a German, a Canadian, and an American. We had alot of fun.

The next day we all went to have a surf. It was really cold and pretty big, and it wasn't the best conditions. A few of us went out while the others had coffee in the vans.

After Raglan, we headed back to drop off the van in Auckland and make our way to Brisbane Australia to see our friends Courtney and Jason.

We will be in touch

C&A