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 icicles hanging from our noses and having a lovely 'travellers wash' in the disabled toilets. As I said, character building.

But anyway, the freedom of driving and the sights more than make up for it. We made our way south from Paihai past the familiar sight of Auckland (that looks stunning at night) and down state highway 1 towards the hot water beaches. After our stopover in the motorway services we finished our drive taking in yet more breathtaking scenery before settling in a campervan site in the Coromandel Penninsula (because you're not allowed to park on the roadside here). Our plan was to go down to the hot water beach at low tide before having a well needed warm shower and bedding down for the night.

We hired a couple of spades and set off to the beach at aroudnd 17:30 when the tide was meant to be at it's lowest. By this time the air temperature was pretty darn cold and I was praying the hot pool we would dig would keep us warm. We all donned the boardies and pulled a couple of torches before rushing down the beach in persuit of the particular area where the hot springs were. And wow - it's hard to describe in words how weird and wonderful the sensation is. You reach an area of the beach where the sand starts getting warm and start to dig yourself a nice trench to lie in. The thing is though, the water isn't just warm, it's 65 degrees on top of the springs and is literally too hot to stand/sit in. Therefore we dug a bit away from the source so that it was a good hot temperature enough for us to sit in and gaze up at the night sky. Steam was pouring over us as the heat of the water evapourated into the darkness and it was a shame we didn't bring any food to boil because it could have easily been done! After a quick (and cold) rush back to the campsite we all got more comfortable and settled down for the evening after such an unforgetable experience.

Our plans now are to head further south down to Tauranga which is near Mount Maunganui in the bay of plenty. Hopefully we'll get to enjoy some of the beautiful walks and landscape some more!