Auckland April 27 - May 2 We arrived in Auckland, what would be our final destination of our travels together and set up camp in a free campsite just outside the city on the north shore. With half the day left we set out to find a windscreen repair company to take a look at the chips on the camper windscreen that we'd noticed when driving to Milford Sound. After much driving around and cursing Google Maps we found our way to one and were informed by the exp...

Bay of Islands April 24 - 26 After our awesome horse-riding adventure we headed up to a small village called Russell in the Bay of Islands. It wasn't far in terms of km's and we chose to go what looked the the most direct route and before we knew it the sun had set and we still had some distance to drive along what turned out to be long, windy dark roads with stray cows around some of the bends! We eventually arrived at the holiday park and set up camp for t...

Pakiri Beach April 24 Easter Sunday morning and we were awoken by the sounds of a hundred little kids getting their morning fix of playing on the swings and shouting in stupidly high voices. After breakfast we packed up and drove the short journey to Leigh, a small village near to the horse riding place. Needing to waste a little time, we wandered around a school 'carnival' - bit of a grand term for what was essentially a village fete, complete with a huge arr...

April 22 - 23 We left Rotorua and headed for Waitomo which didn't take long at all. On arrival we realised that everything was pretty easy to find as due to the land in Waitomo being owned mainly by the Maori tribes there hasn't been a hug amount of development. Waitomo actually means 'water hole' in the Maori language as throughout the countryside there are numerous holes/shafts which drop abruptly into underground cave systems and streams. There are ove...

April 19 - 22 You can't help but know exactly when you've reached Rotorua, you smell it a long time before you see it! The town's proximity to the geothermal valley and it's sulphur deposits mean that depending on which way the wind is blowing and how much rain there's been you get a town which either smells a bit like egg or a town that smells like someone took a giant egg mayo sandwich and hid it under a fat guy in a sauna for a couple of days...putrid. ...