After breakfast we walked round the beautiful Blue Lake - no sign of another person and then back to the motor home and we headed to the Taupo Volcanic Zone. Steam was rising from all over the place as we travelled to Wai-O-Tapu another major thermal wonderland. The area was covered with collapsed craters, boiling pools of mud and water and steaming fumeroles and lakes and pools of different colours which were dependent on the type of minerals through which steam...

There was heavy overnight rain and we woke to grey skies. We did some food shopping at Countdown for the next couple of days and used our discount voucher from the supermarket to top up with diesel - $NZ1.06/ltr less 10 cents discount which made it approx £0.46/ltr! How good' s that? Weather took a turn for the worse with heavy rain showers as we headed along Fenton Street to Te Puia described as a thermal wonderland and the smell of sulphur was very much in ...

Left Hot Water beach at 10.15 after getting the motor home into some order and headed south along coast. Stopped at Whangamata for a brew overlooking the beach which was one of the best for surfing in NZ. Best automated loos on beach! We then headed across country across a relatively flat and uninteresting plain before arriving in a much more scenic area with rolling hills and lots of milking cattle. Stopped for sandwich lunch in Morinsville and passed through Pa...

An early start to get packed and taxi picked us up at 09.15 to take us to collect the motor home that will be our home for the next 3 weeks! After the usual paperwork but surprisingly nothing more to pay, we were let loose with a brand new Kea four berth motor home with delivery mileage only. All the equipment, appliances, bedding etc had not been previously used. After a quick demonstation we were on the road and first port of call was to a local supermarket to...

After having had a continental breakfast in The Heritiage Hotel we headed down to the port and caught the local ferry to Devonport. From the wharf we headed uphill towards North Head and were helped by the strong winds behind us. Once on top we explored the underground tunnels from the Second World War and were able to look back at the fantastic views of Auckland. Once down the other side of the hill we were sheltered from the wind and it was quite warm as we cl...