Rotorua sure is a smelly place... And not just because us lads turned up in our camper vans which now have a slight eau de man about them.  The drive from tauranga to rotorua was a fairly straight forward hour journey down another of the state highways. After going through the city's industrial estate we arrived in the city centre which was surrounded by your typical shops, banks oh and geothermal pools of sulpher! The scene was surreal. You were literally in a...

It's a sad statement, but so far in NZ I've been really impressed with their roads. We've pretty much followed their state highways which, unlike England, are one lane roads with numerous passing lanes scattered throughout. They were apparently built over horse tracks meaning they often take a meandering route around the edges of mountains and other landscape. The result is breathtaking views in a peaceful environment between our destinations. We've reached Taur...

Life in the campervans is not as easy and comfortable as people may think. There are plenty of up and downsides to having them and they all certainly add alot of character to you. We're in the middle of winter here in NZ so our vans are pretty cold during the nights. Add to that we're avoiding the campervan sites that charge on average $10 a head so we've got no amenities. The result is that we're now accustomed to waking up in a service stations carpark with ici...

The drive to Paihai is incredible... it was if you were driving through the lake district with valleys of lushous green filled hills either side of you. On top of that we were close to the coast on parts which gave us another set of jaw dropping views. You really get to appreciate the scenery when you drive. Our campervans are very cool by the way. Me and George are in one with a manga design painted across it whilst Woody and Beans are in one with a maori face....

Out with the old and in with the new. Or should that be, out with the warm and in with the New Zealand?! New Zealand had an immidiate impact on me and reminds me alot of home with the left side driving, similar landscape, roadsigns and most depressingly - the weather. It's a cool 14 degrees outside during the daytime so our shorts and flipflops have been made redundant for our 7 weeks here. The positive about the weather is that it will give us the chance to ski...