On waking our plan was to drive to Taupo and camp near the lake. I threw a spanner in the works by offering a last minute diversion to the coast. We turned off a roundabout towards Whakatane. Gary was very excited at the thought of going to the beach and camping! We arrived at Whakatane and spent a good few minutes strolling around town trying to find a bakery to get some fresh bread for lunch. We ended u buying Gaz some new flip flops, sold to him by the fact th...

Another blue sky day and a jet lagged Gaz made for a good start. We headed out to Wai-O-Tapu, a 'thermal wonderland'. We got our tickets and headed (with lots of others) to see the Lady Knox Geyser. Gaz, with great cynicism (and what later proved to be great accuracy) suggested that they had a button to eat the geyser off. I'm not going to spoil it for future visitors but I will say that the eruption was induced! The highlight for me was seeing the Ch...

So... I picked up a very weary Gaz at the airport just before 5am, slightly grumpy (both of us!). I tried to get a couple of hours sleep at the hotel before we headed off on our journey south. Having refuelled Gaz and the car we stopped at Matamata. Gary was about to hit a new level of surrealism with a trip to Hobbiton, the movie set! Having recently filmed 'The hobbit, the desomation of Smaug' the set was in incredible shape. We had an entertaining guid...

When I woke up in my tent in Waipu Cove this morning I did not expect my day to pan out quite like this. I am in a hotel near Auckland airport and preparing to sleep so I can pick I a very delayed Gaz at 4:35am... Some 12h after he was due to arrive. I enjoyed watching two large oyster catcher type birds strutting their stuff around the campsite at the break of dawn. I made my way down the coast from the campsite to Langs Bay and then to Whangarei heads stopping ...

Snigger... Let's get this out of the way... Waipu... Seriously?! As the LP guide points out, Imodium have missed a marketing opportunity for Kiwi's! The birds of Puketi forest are both quieter and more civilised than those in Waipoura. I was woken at 6am and was having brekkie by half past! I woke up to mist and a very soggy tent. I drove to Kerikeri at the top of the Bay of Islands and then down to Paiha. I visited the Whaitangi treaty grounds, where the...