Day 13 19/2/13 Wellington

Wow our holiday was nearly ruined when we realised there was a set of scales in the bathroom, so we decided to ignore them and instead went and had a cooked breakfast rather than our cereal and yoghurt! We had a stroll around Lambton Quay which is the main shopping area, the queue for the cable car was extreme, so were glad we had done this the afternoon we arrived. We were told there were two cruise ships docked, which explained why. We then walked along the harbour waterfront which had lots of activity. We did a 2 hour scenic loop with John's Minibus Tour (not JT) which covered a lot of ground we could not have walked to. We went to Mt Victoria lookout, with stunning 360degree views of Wellington, the oldest colonial cottage, the Prime Minister's residence, gorgeous Victorian homes, Botanic Gardens, St Paul's, a beautiful wooden church and the oldest in Wellington and of course the Beehive and Parliament. We then did a tour of Parliament House, which explained the building of the Beehive and how the older building has been reinforced for future earthquakes given Wellington sits on the Australian tectonic plate which has caused so much earthquake damage in the past. It was a sitting day for Parliament, so we saw the "bear pit" at question time and there is plenty of controversy at present with a deal that has been done for the Auckland Convention Centre, so the Prime Minister John Key was in the firing line. We had decided to do a live show and so had a quick dinner and headed to the Gryphon Theatre, which only seated about 100 and saw a play called RageFace which was performed by a group of young performers as part of the Fringe Festival. It only went for an hour and we really enjoyed it, some great acting.

Day 14 20/2/13 Wellington to Napier

After a 2.5km walk in beautiful sunshine to pick up our hire car, which is a red corolla again, so it should go fast, we picked up our gear at the hotel and headed for Napier. We realised that we had not seen any sheep and after 82km we finally saw a few, on a golf course!!, there are definitely less sheep than on the South Island and so far there is more traffic. We travelled the spectacular mountainous and winding Hutt Valley road and stopped at Martinborough, a very pretty town in the heart of the Wairarapa wine region for our daily coffee and some delicious Hummingbird cake. We continued onto Hawkes Bay wine area and stopped at Ash Ridge Winery which had won "The best winery for 2012" for Hawkes Bay. At Hastings we drove to the top of Te Mata Peak (1,289ft) which is limestone ridges and has spectacular views from the ocean across the Maungaharuru ranges where you felt like you were on top of the world. Onto Napier, this is a very pretty seaside town, shame about the pebble beach! In 1931 the town was completely destroyed by an earthquake and the town decided to rebuild in the Spanish mission style or art deco, so this heritage remains today. We had a unit with a kitchen so it was off to the supermarket for some beautiful salmon and salad. Today was superb weather and the top temperature was 27degrees.

Day 15 21/2/13 Napier to Tauranga

We left in beautiful sunshine with the promise of another gorgeous day and it reached 29 degrees. We headed to Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ and another very pretty town. This was our coffee break, which we had overlooking the lake, just gorgeous. Located in Lake Taupo are the Huka Falls which are part of the Waitomo River (the longest in NZ) and while they are not huge they are impressive for the speed at which the beautiful blue-green water moves over the 24m (79ft) drop. Where they taper off into the river the jetboats speed right up to the foot of the falls. After this we went to the Aratiatia Rapids, where several times a day the gates of the dam open and in less than 10minutes, the dry riverbed goes from an empty basin of boulders to a raging river. After the gates close, (approx. 15 minutes later) the released water flows downstream and the dry bed reappears, it was fascinating to watch. NZ has lots of big things and today was the "big fish, the big sheep and the big dog". The highlight of the day was still to come and this was JT starring in Hobbiton at Matamata. I have not seen the movie or read the books, however this tour covers the actual complete set of the village from the book and the movie and has been set up as a permanent display for at least the next 50 years, what a most amazing and enchanting experience. An arrangement has been made with the owners of the property and they continue to run their sheep and get on with their farming, while bringing income to the area. This location set will be used for future movies. At the conclusion of the tour you are given a complimentary drink at the Green Dragon Pub. As we didn't start this tour until 4.30pm it was quite late by the time we reached our hotel in Tauranga, so we decided on dinner at Collar and Thai right across the street, and it was a lovely meal.

Day 16 22/2/13 Tauranga to Paihia

With a long drive ahead of us, we decided to have breakfast out rather than our usual cereal etc. Across the bridge from Tauranga, is the beach town of Mount Manunganui. Once again these are both very pretty towns and Tauranga is also a seaport, where the cruise ships dock. After our breakfast we walked around the mountain, which is about 3kms with great ocean, beach and harbour views along with lovely fernery and shrubbery. We drove via Katikati which is known for its painted murals throughout the town. This was a slow trip to Auckland, which you have to go through to go north, as it is one lane, lots of traffic and trucks and not many overtaking lanes. We hit Auckland just pre Friday afternoon peak hour and the traffic was moving ok, however John said there is one spot where the traffic slows and sure enough it was a jam as soon as we reached there. They have the system of the traffic light for the flow of traffic onto the freeways, without these it would be even more of a nightmare. We decided to continue north of Auckland before we stopped for our lunch, by this time is was getting closer to dinner. We stopped at a beachside town of Orewa and as it was another gorgeous 29degree day we watched everyone surfing and swimming while we ate. Afterwards the navigator had spied a Movenpick ice-cream shop and so we thought it was only right we sample their produce, we both had the new flavour of Crème Brule and is was delicious! We stopped at Whangarei Falls, which are very pretty and where kids were diving from the top of a pine tree into the river above the falls, such a lack of inhibition!! We finally arrived at our very comfortable self-contained unit which is across the road from the beach and headed for the supermarket, where we chose rump steak and salad, which was delicious and we ate in our little patio. Another great day!

Day 17 23/2/13 Paihia

We were up early as the tour director had not booked any activities for this area, so we headed for the visitor centre, a lovely stroll along the waterfront. Cruise ships are arriving and we wanted to be sure we could get the tours we had selected. We did such a fun trip with Explore NZ which was their ocean adventure trip in a Rigid-hulled Inflatable Boat (RIB). After we were given our safety vests, splash jackets and were buckled into our seats we headed across the bay past many islands, where the water changes from aquamarine to indigo blue and out into open water to the Cape Brett Peninsula. We went to the Hole in the Rock, which is in open waters and even though the swell was reasonable, on the right wave our skipper sped us bobbing through the hole, then to the Cathedral Cave which has the most amazing colours on the walls inside and is due to the coral on the wall, next onto Cape Brett Lighthouse and it's little cottage. There are over 144 islands in this area which Captain Cook discovered and named on his way to Australia, some are inhabited and only one is possible to camp on, Otehei Bay which looked very peaceful. Even though there was a reasonable swell, the skipper had been careful and to this point we had not had a drenching, ahha this changed and soon we were drenched (camera was under the splash jacket), luckily it was another perfect day, so it was a hoot. We were dropped off at Russell, a quaint township across from Paihia and found a lovely waterside café where John had Hapuka "fish and chups" and I had Oyster Fritters, which we both really enjoyed…so no cooking tonight. We hopped the little ferry back to Paihia and had a lovely relaxing afternoon, of reading, cheese and bickies while doing some necessary "domestic chores".