August 18th (Tuesday) - Day 169 - AucklandOur last bus journey in New Zealand. It's been great but I am glad to not to be on a bus again for a while. We had a lot of stops to cover off today. The first being a little sleepy village. We had a quick walk around and found a path that led through some mangroves. Our next stop was in a place called Opononi; this is really famous for a dolphin that used to play with tourists in the bay back in the 1950's. We were made ...

August 15th (Saturday) - Day 166 - Paihia (Bay of Islands)No time to stop in Auckland, we were straight on the next bus. We were heading up north to the Bay of Islands and the most historically significant place in New Zealand. Most of the early history and settlement began in the far north. It was raining when we left Auckland but it got brighter the further north we went. Along the way we had to decide what to do for our 3 days in Paihia. We really wanted to do...

August 14th (Friday) - Day 165 - AucklandBack on the bus yet again - at least today was a short one. We got dropped in the middle of nowhere and waited for the main circuit bus to come pick us up. 90 minutes later we were back in Auckland. I didn't pay much attention to the whole journey as it was raining. We checked in to our hostel which was the cheapest so far plus they chucked in a free meal and a drink! Not bad! We then set out to find Sarah a new bag. Less ...

August 13th (Thursday) - Day 164 - WhitiangaBack on the bus but today was a break from the norm. The main bus only took us half way back to Auckland and dropped us off where we'd catch a connection bus up into the to Coromandel Peninsula. We had a brand new bus waiting for us at the connection point. I based on the 6 people on the main bus a few days prior and with this being an extra on the route I didn't think many people would be coming but we ended up with 9 ...

August 12th (Wednesday) - Day 164 - Mount MaunganuiI hardly slept all night because I'd been sleeping all day the day before. So I forced myself to stay awake by reading. Not the best idea as reading makes me sleepy but it was a good book. We back tracked on our pass as we went back through Taupo (picking up people) and also back to Rotorua. We'd already stopped in both these places so weren't stopping the night. We visited the Huka falls that Sarah and I had rid...