Our friends Ewan and Angela came to visit a couple of weeks ago, so we decided to go for a drive in the vans. We didn't actually get very far, were going to go to Whakatane, but ended up just down the road at Maketu. Everyone (except me!) was going to go horseriding there on the beach, it's supposed to be really good. Unfortunately, as always seems to happen when we go camping, the weather took a turn for the worse and it was too windy and rainy to go! That n...

We've now been living in our new place for 2 weeks, and it's totally awesome! The people we are sharing with are from Brazil and Chile, and they are all really nice. We've been going to the beach at the weekends (even though it's not really hot enough yet!) last weekend I climbed the mount, Jack didn't want to so i went myself! It took 30 minutes to get up there, and it was really really steep I was so glad when I got to the top - it was worth it though, the v...

So we have decided to move to Mount Maunganui because it's closer to the beach - we actually moved a bit quicker than expected! We gave 2 weeks notice to our flatmate last Friday as we felt bad about moving out, but really wanted to live by the beach. A few days later she sent us a text that she was also moving out and wanted us out by the weekend so she can sell furniture?!?! So much for us being nice and giving notice! We had 2 days to organise ourselves, b...

As it was Jack's birthday, we took a trip to the Coromandel Peninsula with some friends that we met when we were staying in the backpackers. There were 3 vans and we all drove up in a convoy, some vans a bit slower than others (our Mr Jingles!!) but we all got there safely! Our first stop was Hahei, where we camped for the night. We didn't get to do too much sighseeing that day, as the drive took a bit longer than we expected - the roads are so wyndy, we were ...

Well, we've now been in New Zealand for just over a month - it's still cold, we're wondering if summer is ever going to arrive here!! We're still in Tauranga but have been getting away most weekends in our van (who is named Mr Jingles). A couple of weeks ago we went to Auckland because Jack had bid on a bike to get to work, and he won it so we had to pick it up. On the way back, we got in touch with a couple we met (who are from Inchture!! (For those that don'...