Auckland, New Zealand (21st Mar 2008) Matamata to Auckland Via Tauranga Driver: KaraDistance Travelled: 273.7 Km / 170.1 Miles Accumulative Distance: 4576.0 Km / 2844.0 Miles We had a bit of a lie-in in Matamata and when we eventually did wake up we went straight back into town. The first thing we saw was the Hobbiton sign which we of course posed for a picture next too and then we saw the tours that go to the film set. Slightly intrigued by these we went t...

Waitomo Caves, New Zealand (20th Mar 2008) Taupo to Matamata via Waitomo Caves and Hamilton, New Zealand (20th Mar 2008) Driver: MarkDistance Travelled:347.4 Km / 215.9 Miles Accumulative Distance: 4302.3 Km / 2673.9 Miles The drive from Taupo took much less time than we had expected and when we arrived we had a couple of hours to chill out, so we read and wrote our some of the blog that we have long needed to catch up on. We originally came to Waitomo to d...

Taupo, New Zealand (19th Mar 2008) Napier to Taupo Driver: MarkDistance Travelled: 234.7 Km / 145.9 Miles Accumulative Distance: 3954.9 Km / 2458.0 Miles Before we set off for our next destination we made a quick pit stop back in Napier so Kara could take advantage of the $1 showers and so that we could post off our student loan forms. We managed to get back on the road for ten and the 147 kilometres to Taupo made for quite an easy drive although the land...

Napier, New Zealand (18th Mar 2008) Wellington to Napier Driver: MarkDistance Travelled: 352.7 Km / 219.2 Miles Accumulative Distance: 3720.2 Km / 2312.1 Miles The entire drive to Napier took us straight along State Highway 2 and because there wasn't much to see along the way we made pretty good time and only stopped for a toilet break or two. We drove into Napier and were surprised to see there wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun really was shining. Th...

Wellington, New Zealand (16th Mar 2008) Nelson to Wellington via Picton Driver: KaraDistance Travelled: 167.8 + 103 Km / 104.3 + 64.0 Miles Accumulative Distance: 3367.5 Km / 2092.9 Miles Our final day on the south island started relatively late since we didn't really need to rush for the ferry, which was leaving Picton in the early afternoon (2pm) and we hadn't planned on stopping to do or see anything on the way. Although we only had to drive a hundred ...