I was really looking forward to waking up and seeing the sun shining on that beautiful beach but the sound of torrential rain let me know that wasn't to be. I couldn't get the shower hot and I discovered that I had lost my shower gel so not a good start to the day. We left in the pouring rain and went via a couple of lovely beaches to join the highway to Whangarei. The information centre seemed to be full of tourists looking for wet weather locations. W...

It started raining in the night and we have discovered when the rain comes in from the east it just rains and rains non stop. At least in England we know rain usually stops after a few hours. We started the day with a dip in the hot spa mineral pool which has a sun shade to shelter you from rain! Graham had downloaded a few geocaches so he found one close to the campsite and then we drove up north towards Aukland. As we hit the motorway through Aukland the traff...