The Maori capital, the city has steam appearing all over, in people's gardens, from drains, boiling mud pools fenced off in parks and in our campsite. We were in a cabin with a view of boiling mud pools and the whole city smells sulphurous. We walked through the giant redwood forest then took the treetop walk as darkness fell. Giant lanterns light up at dusk and although we didn't see any glow worms, the Illuminated forest floor made up for it. Next day we drov...

From Coromandel we drove around the coast and up and down mountains, at one point on a dirt road (dont tell the car hire people) through fabulous scenery and with a scary drop at the side of the road. No barriers here! A brief stop at Hot Water Beach to paddle in a hole dug in the sand, which fills with hot water which bubbles up. Temperatures range from Ouch that's hot to 'what heat'? depending on where the hole is dug. Luckily we were invited to share with ...

We're now in a pretty little town, the capital of the peninsula of the same name. Founded when a Royal Navy ship of this name came to buy spars made from the local Kauri trees. There is beautiful countryside with dairy farms in between steep hills remininiscent of Devon. Several public slips are surrounded by boats, from inflatables smaller than ours up to big fishing boats, and they all launch in to the Bay of Plenty. Mussel and shellfish are farmed in the bay a...

No more time zone changes for 3weeks! We arrived after midnight but it only felt like 8pm, though theplane was late so w had to run for our connection -again-wel, we got some exercise. Yesterday we went on a harbour tour as a lazy way to see some sights. Auckland has some pretty 1920's buildings still standing amidst the skyscrapers. Lunch was in a grassy square with music and dinner in a night market, we chose Chinese but therewere many Korean and Japanese op...