We sadly left Rich & Vickies and made our way to the Coromandel peninsula. Beautiful scenery as we made our way along the East Coast towards Coromandel Town. Just outside of Coromandel is the Driving Creek Railway built by Barry Brickell. It is a little Heath Robinson but a fantastic feat of engineering. Barry put down every sleeper on the track as it climbs its way to the top of a mountain towards the eyeful tower where you have a fantastic view over the ba...

Today Rich and the girls (Maggie & Gissie, two beautiful King Charles Spaniels) joined us as we toured along the coast towards Whakatane and the lakes between Kawerau and Rotorua. Rich remembered some hot pools where we spent a lovely hour relaxing before heading off for lunch bedsides the lake. The dogs really enjoyed their day swimming both in the ocean and the lake and we enjoyed watching their fun. The cover photo on this entry was taken from Vicki and ...

Today Rich and Vicki thought it would be good idea to get some exercise so we made our way to the Mount which overlooks Tauranga. After a short climb we made it to the top for some spectacular views of the town and coastline. At the top we saw a stunt paraglider who had fantastic talent although on several occasions we thought he was going to crash, he did however land safely. We then spent a fantastic afternoon on the beach jet skiing. Rich & Vicki have a ...

On leaving Taupo this morning we made our way to Rotorua which is famed for the geothermal activity throughout the area. One of the many tips we had picked up on the way was to stop at a natural hot mineral spring at Waiotapu. We parked up on the road side and made our way to the pool which was overhung with trees and ferns, there are rickety steps down into a green pool which is very hot. Once in the water we found that by moving into the path of the cold feed...

Richard and Vicki very kindly invited us to stay with them for a few days and we arrived at their home early in the evening. Having been on the road for about eight weeks now it was wonderful to settle into a family home for a while. Rich and Vicki have been in NZ for six years now and are just living the dream together with their lovely children, Emily and Josh. They have a great set of friends, an absolutely fantastic home in a wonderful location and careers t...