We drove west from Waihi Beach and our first night was spend on a camp site within Auckland. The whole time was spent watching the updates on the terrible earthquake that had happened earlier in the day in Christchurch. Between this and packing everything back into our bags ready to give the van back, we didn't have time for much else. Our last day in New Zealand was spent in Auckland, where we sadly handed back the camper and had a wander around Auckland. I...

The New Zealand trip was starting to wind down now so we couldn't move far from Auckland, which limited what we could do. It would have been lovely to make it to the far north but with time against us we wouldn't have been able to get there and back. We decided to stop on the coast for our final few days and parked the camper up just outside Waihi Beach. The weather was lovely so we spent our time on the beach, with Tom even taking a swim in the freezing wat...

We carried on north towards Rototua, but not without a stop on the outskirts of Taupo to see the Huka Falls. There is a small channel where all the rivers water has to pass through which makes up the falls. There is a phenominal amount of clear blue water passing through back into the main river below. We stood on the bridge over it watching the water gush through. You could even take a jet boat ride that takes you right near where the water hits at the bottom....

We decided to head straight through Taupo, with a view to seeing it on the return journey as we wanted to see the volcanoes first. This took us down to the Tongariro National Park, home to three active volcanoes - one of which being Mt Doom in the Lord of the Rings! The drive there was incredible. We drove along the windy road through the valleys along the highway when all of a sudden we came back out into the open to be faced with Mt Tongariro. We had been ex...

The drive to Napier took longer than we thought so we only arrived in the evening. Traffic on the North Island is definitely more busy than the south! We headed straight for the camp site and settled into a wine and scrabble evening. The next morning we went into Napier properly, as we'd only been staying on the outskirts. The city is known for its Art Deco architecture and for that reason it is a really pretty town. However there isn't much to do if you're ...