Now heading to Wellington too early simply due to rain we had to stay for two nights which we weren't really bothered for. It seems a nice, small city, and was surprised to find its the capital (suppose we should probably know these things)! As we arrived the wind was fierce,Whitby shot to mind! The place we'd planned to stay at no longer existed and our plans for parking became very difficult. We we forced to drive around the city in search of somewhere to st...

We woke up to rain and a very wet tent for the first time on the trip. We took down the tent as best we could, hanging it in a shelter for a bit before packing it up. The walking plan was off as we don't have any coats, and to top off the bad start the awful Christmas CD we'd bought yesterday was now jammed in the car player and even the radio didn't work, it could be a long six weeks. Hoping to clear the rain we set off out of the Mountains in search of a DoC...

Today we needed to get a little further south to help meet the ferry and Tom decided he wanted to see the mountains up close so we found another campsite in the DOC brochure which looked nice. En route we stopped off in Taupo hoping to use the internet in the library but it wasn't open access, instead we visited a charity shop and bought some goodies, bed linen, a flask, and a Christmas CD. We drove towards the mountains for a few hours with the awful Christma...

So the plan for today, before heading further south was to visit the thermal village. By the time we had breakfast and packed away the tent it was nearing lunch before we got to the village, unfortunately it was set up for a full day visits. We thought we probably wouldn't get our moneys worth, and decided to move on and visit one in the next town. Tonight we are going Bear Grills style and camping at a Department of Conservation (DOC) site, of which there are...

We slept well last night and woke up fairly late, we packed everything away and set off on our journey south. We only have seven days to get to Wellington, where we are catching the ferry across to the South island. The first stop was the tourist information where we spoke to a nice lady who gave us lots of brochures with things to do and see on the way down. Now having a little more knowledge, we headed to Rotorua, a town known for its thermal activity. It to...