Drove on down the coast to opononi stopping off at the oldest pub in NZ at Horeke. On the way had to negotiate Raetea forest, the roads would easily give the Nurburg Ring a run for its money and the banked corners helped the volkwagen on its way. A few unsealed dark roads later and we found Opononi. We thought about pulling up on the side of the road for the nite but jo does like getting mains electricity for the heating and our fresh refils of water as well as ...

Spent the night in Awanui then headed for 90 miles beach for a paddle then headed on up to Cape Reinga. From the top of the country you could see the two oceans colliding, the pacific and tasman sea, the waves broke against each other as well as the shore. At Te Paki we headed toward 90 mile beach again and one of the many massive sand dunes. A maori chap was sleeping in his car on a bit of a track not far from some of the dunes and we got a board off him for a b...

Took a tour around the coast near Paihia in our bus, called off at Waitangi Treaty Grounds, took a short hike up a mountain then called off at Haruru Falls on the way back to Paihia. Haruru falls and Niagara are the only horseshoe falls in the world tho one is a little bigger than the other. Took a boat trip out through the bay of islands whilst keeping an eye out for dolphins to have a swim with. Found a few of them who where sleeping at first but they woke aft...

Arrived at Auckland to be greeted for the first time at an airport! Jo's friend put us up for the night in North Auckland, so we lived it up in luxury and were looked after very well being feed and watered.Picked up the campervan/passion wagon, a lump of a volkswagen that steers much like a stena line, is as steady as a waine on a sugar overdose and with no poke to her at all. But she'll do our job and is kitted out with bathroom, kitchen and bedroom. We filled i...