Just a little postscript. We had a little missive in the post from New Zealand last month, which was exciting. Except that it was speeding ticket from North Island!! Can you believe it? We hardly see another car on the road for days, let alone a police car, and we get caught speeding! Highly amusing. (I just hope they'll still let us go back!)

Auckland to Newcastle We checked out of our hotel at 11 o'clock and really didn't have time to do any proper sight seeing before getting the rental car back. We found a park nearby on the edge of a lake and enjoyed the sunshine for a while before hunting down some lunch. The food on the flights over had been really tasty so we didn't think we needed to eat a huge lunch. A mistake, as it turned out! Before we left the hotel we'd tried to check in online but ...

Rotorua to Auckland The day started off really sunny but, by the time we were ready to leave, it was overcast and quite cool. A good day for driving, though. We figured it would take about three hours or so to get up to Auckland, more if we stopped to see anything interesting. We stopped in Cambridge for an early lunch, mainly because we wanted to see what a New Zealand Cambridge would be like, and because it looked quite big on the map! Deep reasoning. ...

It's been another cracker day, with hot sunshine and no clouds. No alarm clock, either, this morning, so a little lie-in. We'd bought bread and marmalade and fresh fruit for breakfast, so we had that and then planned what we were going to do. 'Waiotapu Wonderland', despite its dreadful name, sounded like a good first stop; we couldn't come to Rotoua and not check out the geothermal stuff. Apparently, George Bernard Shaw visited New Zealand in 1934 and wished...

Napier to Rotorua The weather today was just fantastic! Deep blue skies and not a cloud to be seen - and really warm. Gorgeous. We checked out of the hotel and headed into the town to find breakfast. We found a café and while we were waiting in the queue to order, a lady passed us with a small parrot on her finger (or something like a small parrot!). She left the parrot outside, sitting on her handbag while she made her food order and then, when her food came,...