The Belgian guys had been staying in the Nomads Fat Camel and so we we're right outside of it when we sold the van. We thought this would be the sensible choice rather than dragging our bags all over Auckland city centre! BAD CHOICE!! It was $24 each for an eight bed dorm. The dorms were in a little 'appartment' which was absolutely filthy! There were a few tatty sofas and there was a lot of rubbish lying around. The bedroom was tiny and had four bunkbeds squash...

When we arrived back in Auckland we headed straight for the campsite that we had originally stayed at when we first began our trip in New Zealand-nothing had changed! The next morning we caught the bus into the CBD armed with some posters advertising the van. We went into loads of backpackers to pin up our posters, luckily, most of the were on Queens Street. After a lot of walking around and searching for hosels we went for some lunch and would you believe it, we...

Well, Rotorua STINKS! It`s very similar to Taupo; a geothermal wonderland, only on a much bigger scale. There are more thermal parks and spas and you can`t escape the smell of sulphur! Tourism is also massive here, but we couldn`t help but think it was just that and not real Maori culture!! We skipped the maori culture concerts that make Rotorua famous because we`d already seen one up in the Bay of Islands. We did however visit a few more of the thermal parks w...

Up there on 'some of the best things we have done in New Zealand' has to be our trip to Waitomo caves. We went with a company called Rap, Raft & Rock because they were considerably cheaper than the other operaters!!! and claimed to do everything the other companies did at a cheaper rate... The night before our trip we stayed in the nearest town to Waitomo which was Te Kuiti. I wouldn't reccomend this town...it was really run down and the kind of place where ...

Bright eyed and bushy tailed on Friday morning, we drove from Wellington to Stratford. (Yes, this town is named after Stratford upon Avon. Even the street names are taken from Shakespears characters!!). The actual town was a bit grim, the main attraction here has to be Mount Taranaki (Egmont National park) which is a good replica of Mt Fuji! We would really have liked to climb Mt Taranaki but it is the wrong time of year. The top is still snow capped so any attem...