We moved up the coast to Motuaka on Wednesday and had a great day. We took a boat trip up to the Abel Tasman National Park and were left on a deserted beach. We took a short walk through the forest until we reached another fantastic beach where we ate our picnic and waited for the boat to collect us later. We saw seals swimming in the sea and jumping off the rocks which was a real treat. On Thursday we travelled through Murchison and stopped at New Zealand's lon...

Well we are now in the South Island. We arrived in Wellington on Friday afternoon and are very grateful to Phil and Chloe for the hospitality they have shown us over the weekend even though it is 5 years since we last saw them. As I have said before there is usually a dilema that confronts us and Friday was no different. We have had problems with the toilet door jamming shut and up to now we have managed to free the lock with the help of a fork or a knife, howeve...

wE'VE HAD A FANTASTIC COUPLE OF DAYS AND HAVE BEEN IN rOTORUA AND NOW IN tAUPO. wE HAVE BEEN BATHING IN HOT MINERAL POOLS and walking through landscapes full off bubbling mud pools and volcanic pools it is brilliant. We have taken hundreds of photos but not managed to work out how to get them on the site but as soon as we can find a way we will put some on. The weather is still great and we should be heading further south to Napier today to meet up with some ...

We're now in Papamoa Beach close to Tauranga on the North Island. It's Easter Saturday so all the sites are busy. We have luckily hit on a great site right on the beach and our pitch backs onto the play area. The kids have been there all afternoon and have made quite a few friends already. Tomorrow we're heading for Rotorua - which is only about an hour away before we start to make our way down to Wellington. I booked the ferry today between the islan...

It's been a couple of days since I wrote anything but we have found a site with internet access today. We are now on the Coromandel peninsula. We had a day toboggoning down the sand dunes on Tuesday before travelling up to Waiwera where we spent the afternoon in thermal swimming pools which was fantastic. We were also treated to some traditional Mauri singing and a demonstration on the Haka which was a real bonus. We then travelld on to Coromandel where we st...