Melbourne 23rd December - 6th January Stayed with friends Rob and Bron in St Kilda for our first two nights in Melbourne and their hospitality was unbelievably brilliant. We all went round to meet Rachel, one of my brother's friends, on our first night as she'd amazingly offered us the use of her flat for 9 days for free as she was away for most of Christmas. Did some last minute shopping on Christmas Eve in Melbourne CBD with all of the other nutte...

We had been planning on heading straight from Bay of Islands to Rotorua - having looked at the map, it looked do-able, until we spoke to the YHA manager who laughed us outta town. hence a bit of a detour via the Coromandel, where Aucklanders like to head off on hols. Amazing twisty-turney coastlineon the way - absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately the same can't be said about our accommodation choice in Coromandel town that night - where we encountered the first...

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 Aust...

Finally I have been let loose on the blog and have approximately 13 minutes to update Auckland... Yikes. We arrived late on Thursday evening and were wonderfully met at the airport by Kate T and her hubby Andrew who very kindly have put us up for the past 3 nights here. We then drove to the top of Mount Eden where we got a 360 degree view of Auckland at night - quite a spectacular intro to the city - and incredible how big it is. We then headed back to Kate an...

Melbourne 23rd December - 6th January Stayed with friends Rob and Bron in St Kilda for our first two nights in Melbourne and their hospitality was unbelievably brilliant. We all went round to meet Rachel, one of my brother's friends, on our first night as she'd amazingly offered us the use of her flat for 9 days for free as she was away for most of Christmas. Did some last minute shopping on Christmas Eve in Melbourne CBD with all of the other nutte...