So we said whatever the opposite of "Kia Ora" is to Kate and Andrew at the airport after they'd kindly given us a lift to pick up the hire car. although small, it feels seriously nippy after hefting the campervan around corners.

We got on the road north first, heading up to Pahia in the Bay of Islands up in the Northland, with a small detour to Kawa Kawa for a look at some funky public loos - and they didn't disappoint!! They were designed by an Austrian artist, Friedrich Hundertwasser who loved the area. Most cultural pee i've had since the one in Sydney Opera House - also a particularly stylish facility - recommended.

Up in Pahia, having already done the boat trip thing several times in Australia, and on serious budget smackdown now, we controversially decided not to do a boat trip or do the trip up[ to Cape Reinga - the most northerly part of NZ and home to 90 mile beach. Having already been beach driving on Frazer Island, it didn't seem to warrant a day to drive up there - or indeed shelling out lots of dosh... We headed instead to visit the Waitangai Treaty grounds - the place where the modern New Zealand was born in 1840 with a treaty signed between the British and the Maori leaders of the time. There's now quite a lot of controversy around how this was later ratified - surprise surprise. There was a massive Maori war boat carved for the 150 anniversary which is in the grounds and is very impressive. The original Governor's house and ships mast is still in place where the treaty was signed.

We stopped off at a viewing spot for lunch at Hokianga Harbour. Gotta hand it to the Kiwis, they are seriously good at signposting all the ace views when you're touring around by car. We had lunch here, and were pretty pleased with ourselves when we saw the views. We spent the afternoon over on the other coast of the Northland, the Kauri coast, visiting Waipoua Kauri Forest, which has some of the biggest Kauri trees on the island including Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest) the biggest Kauri tree in NZ, and possibly the oldest at around 2,000 years it's estimated and Te Matua Ngahere (Father of the Forest) and the Four Sisters. Big trees. Rounded the day off at Haruru Falls to see the horse shoe shaped waterfalls - we have seen a lot of waterfalls on this trip - safe to say, these aren't in the top 10, but you can stay at a campsite next to them and swim in the river further downstream. we didn't do this.

Our first couple of days driving around demonstrated that Kiwi drivers are 1) seriously aggressive 2) not particularly good drivers 3) like to use their middle finger to express their sentiments regarding tourists.