Well we are about a week into our campervan experience and still loving it! The best thing is the feeling of absolute freedom you get...no bus timetables or schedules to stick to. After touring around the Northlands we headed to the Coromandel Peninsula, just east of Auckland, with our first stop being the town of Thames. Although we didnt actually stop here for too long it seemed like a cool little place. We headed on northwards to the township of Coromandel which was to be our stop for the night. One thing we didnt expect was for the road to be only a few feet from the sea - I kid you not!! Luckily for us the seas were calm or we would be somewhere in the south Pacific by now!! We eventually arrived at our stop and bunked down in our campsite for the night. The next morning we took some time to enjoy this beautiful little fishing town before deciding to drive on to Mercury Bay as some of the places around there had been reccommended as being places to rival Oz...which we thought was a bit of a claim so we had to check it out. We headed onwards through the rolling hills of the peninsula, stopping only to take some photos of the amazing views to be seen from the many lookouts before arriving in Whitianga. Here we stopped and kicked back in our little deck chairs for the afternoon! The plan was to freedom camp here for the night but the heavans opened so we decided a campsite might be better than sleeping by the sea, especially as the waves were getting up! The following morning we continued on our merry way to Mercury Bay and the famous Hot Water Beach. Here you can dig a hole in the sand and have your very own private (and free) thermal pool. Unfortunately for us the tide had other ideas so we couldn't indulge. Thwated by Mother Nature again!! We moved on to Hahei Beach where we parked up and set off on a 40 walk to Cathedral Cove which has a massive hole through the cliff, big enough to fit a cruise liner through...check out the photos for yourselves! The scenery in this country really is both breath-taking and awe-inspiring. As I write this we are in the middle of making a decision...do we stick around for another day or so or do we head to Rotorua...............well the lure of the town which smells like an eggy fart is too much to take.....Rotorua it is!! Speak to you all soon, take care! P+L xxx