We're now in Waiwera about 30 mins north of Auckland. We're staying at a campsite on the becah again which is next door to some thermal pools. We spent all afternoon there. The pool temps were about 36 degrees - one was even 48! Keith dipped his toe in that one anyway!We tried dune toboganning a couple of days ago at 90 mile beach.  That was great fun but very tiring climbing the dunes - especially after a 2 mile walk around headlands to get to the d...

We're now in 90 mile beach in the very north of the North Island. We spent the last couple of days in the Bay of Islands in Paihia and took a boat over to Russell. We found a lovely site right on the beach so woke up each morning to the sound of waves and ate breakfast listening to the kids count the boats passing the bay - fantastic. The weather fortunately has improved and we're enjoying sunshine and warm temps. The rain that we had was so torrential th...

If you think the rain in Bolton is bad you should see what we have driven through today. The further north we came the heavier the rain. The roads were blocked and the rivers burst their banks. We were originally going up to Russell and the Bay of Islands but the power was off so we stopped here at about 1:30. I decided I would go for a walk and have a look at the town and see if I could buy some wine. I thought I would only be about 20 mins so I didn't tell ...

Jen's turn to write a blog entry... As you can see we're now in Auckland. We arrived yesterday afternoon after a pretty good flight. We flew overnight and managed to squeeze now 2 year old Noah into a 6 month old bassinet (OK he might have looked like he was doing the Hokey Kokey with legs and arms dangling out but he slept well so he couldn't have been too uncomfortable!) which meant Poppy had 2 seats to stretch out on - the result - 2 sleeping chil...