What an awesome week it has been! So far, the north island of New Zealand has not disappointed - we've seen so much beautiful countryside and many beaches, farms (and sheep), and mountains along the way. And it is so great to camp our way around the country. We have rented a Rocket Van - it is a mini-van that has a bed built into the back. You fold out the back hatch and snap on a fabric tarp and it becomes a tent-van. Under the bed, we have storage for our food and cooking supplies, and it has a fold-out stand to put our camp stove on so we can cook outside the van.

So...Sunday morning we began our excellent adventure. We picked up our Rocket van early and set out to explore the Northland region of the north island. We drove a lot that day, just trying to get as far north as possible. We stopped at Bluffs Beach to have our first view of the Tasman Sea and some gorgeous rocky coastline. We also stopped at the Waipoua Kauri forest where we had the chance to hike to some ancient kauri trees. The biggest, the father of the forest, was over 800 years old and over 16 metres in diameter. Very cool. We finally stopped in Rawene for the night at a holiday campground down by a river. Yes, our first night in the rocket van and we spent it in a van, down by the river.

Still adjusting to the time change, we rose with the sun Monday morning(fitting, since we went to bed when the sun set) and got back on the road. We took the ferry across the river to continue our trip. There were ferries running more often at that time of day as people were heading to work - our rush hour consisted of us and 5 other cars on the ferry! We drove all the way up the far north peninsula to have lunch at Cape Reinga. It had a beautiful rocky beach and came to a point with a lighthouse at the end. Here, the Tasman sea and the Pacific ocean meet - and you can see the line where the waves from each crash into the other. What a cool place - and very important for the Maori people as they believe after death, your soul slides down the roots of the one tree able to grow on the rocky cliff.

We stopped at the Te Paki giant sand dunes for a look before continuing on. I've seen lots of dunes in my day but none this big! It was crazy how it went from rocky beaches to giant dunes so quickly - it felt like being in a huge desert all of a sudden! That afternoon, we drove until we arrived to Matauri Bay and camped there for the night. This was by far the most beautiful place I've ever camped before. Our van was parked just off the beach and we slept with the crashing waves of the Pacific ocean just behind our heads.

Tuesday, we got up early and hiked to the top of the hill overlooking the rocky Matauri Bay. At the top, there is a monument to the Rainbow Warrior, a greenpeace ship that was protesting nuclear tests being carried out by the French in some of the Polynesian islands; it was bombed and sunk in the Auckland harbour in 1985. It was brought to this harbour and re-sunk for divers to explore.

After our hike, we headed to the Bay of Islands and had a nice fish and chips lunch in Paihia. We wandered around this beach town for the afternoon and just couldn't quite shell out for one of the bay cruises. Instead, we headed onward, explored a waterfall at Whangarei, and visited Waipu. Waipu had a big immigraton of from Cape Breton back in the 1800s and still maintains much of their Scottish heritage. Dernie had recommended it to us at the wedding - but unfortunately the museum/visitor's centre had just closed for the day when we arrived. It was a cute little town to wander around - we read up on the history and headed to Waipu Cove to check out the beach. We set up camp at Ureiti, just outside Waipu, for the night.

Mark has done all the driving so far and is adapting insanely well to driving on the other side of the road (and car)! Our trip to the Northland really helped this along - he considers it his "New Zealand school of driving". Once we got north of Auckland, traffic was non-existent and he had great practice on country roads with crazy hills and hairpin turn after hairpin turn. Oh, and the speed limit on most all roads is 100 km/h. Except when you are passing through a town, then it might drop to 70km/h. Roads like this at home would most likely be only 50km/h!!!

Wednesday, we passed back through Auckland and headed south to Rotorua. We camped that night at a DOC conservation area on a secluded lake with a handful of black swans swimming around.

We woke up Thursday morning to rain and crazy winds. Although we had a good list of things we wanted to see in Rotorua that day, it seemed like the perfect day to sleep in. And it was! When we finally got up, had breakfast and packed up, the rain was done and there was blue sky on the horizon. We grabbed our rain gear, just in case, and took a little walk into a redwood forest we had found nearby. Everything was so green and smelled so fresh after the rain.

After our walk, we headed into town to check out the one thing Mark had really wanted to do in the area - Zorbing! And because the sun was now out, it had warmed up enough to talk me into it. If you haven't heard of Zorb, basically you get put into the open middle of a big rubber ball and rolled down a big hill. Oh yeah, and inside the ball with you, they pump full of water. We threw on our bathingsuits and jumped superman style into the big ball. We went in together and rolled down the big hill laughing all the way. Ridiculous fun.

Once we dried off, we headed toward Taupo, our next destination. We stopped half-way there to hike our first NZ mountain - Rainbow Mountain. Just a little one, with great views of all the lakes and farm hills in the area.

We arrived in Taupo before dark and set up camp at Reid's Recreational Reserve, an amazing free camp spot backing onto the longest river in NZ. Just a very basic campground (portaloos only), but with such a gorgeous setting.

Today, we got up nice and early with the hopes of hiking the Tongariro Alpine Crossing in Tongariro National Park, an hour or so outside of Taupo. It was spectacularly gorgeous morning as we packed up and headed to the park. However, for the first time in NZ, nature really was not on our side. As we got closer to the park, we could see a HUGE rain cloud hanging directly over the 3 mountains in the park. And by the time we entered the park, the clouds were so low we could no longer see the mountains at all. It wasn't raining much at all so I was still hopeful, but the DOC office advised strongly against the hike today or tomorrow because of the weather. The rain would clear, but the problem was the gale-force winds once you started to gain altitude. On the crossing, it ranged from 70-100km/h winds!!! With no hope of making the trek in the next couple of days, we decided to head south for Wellington and hope for better weather on our way back up the north island in a couple weeks.

We are camping tonight in Upper Hutt, just outside of Wellington. We are poised to hop on the early ferry tomorrow morning and head to the south island. We are camping in a luxirious campground with running water, hot showers and even a communal kitchen. Free wifi doesn't exist in the campgrounds in NZ, although half of the parks do have internet, so we will be posting as often as possible....until next time!