The golf next morning was definitely off when we woke up to glowering, wind-swept skies. We decided to get on our way to Auckland despite the weather, which was absolutely atrocious and the driving conditions abominable with torrential rain and extremely poor visibility - and with radio weather forecast predicting more and worse to come. But E, being the excellent driver he is, pushed on through what looks as if it would be a lovely area so we are planning to ret...

Before we set off from Napier we thought we should take the short drive to Bluff, a 500 ft hill in the centre of Napier that was unaffected by the earthquake. So all the older style colonial houses remain and are set prettily along narrow streets that wind up to the top of the hill. Our visit saw us looking out over blankets of low cloud with glimpses here and there of Cape Kidnappers, Napier beach and the town below. The lookout is a very pleasant reserve and on...

It was still overcast when we got up the next morning so we decided to head off to Napier. By the time we had packed and were ready to set off, the sun had come out so we took a quick spin along the shore of Lake Rototua and around the very pleasant town centre where the original baths were located. They were set in pretty parkland on the lakeside. Rotorua is really quite a nice place if you can get used to the smell of sulphur - know what we mean?We had to retra...

Weather seems to have taken a turn for the worse and it was raining heavily as we drove into Rotorua - the geothermal capital of NZ so here we now are amongst a bunch of geyers. It's a bit niffy with all that sulphurous water running through the town/city although it does give them free hot water for central heating and every hotel/motel has its own thermal spa. One of main reasons for stopping here is to visit the Agrodome which we first saw in Keith & Kar...

Driving into Taupo, the main town on the Lake, we immediately realised we'd been right to stay in the southern part of the area. Nothing particularly wrong with the place but it broke the spell which had been cast over the previous week. So we decided we'd have a couple of days and a quick look at key sights. Craters of the Moon is a vast natural geo-thermal area with vents and fumeroles steaming and fuming away, with the occasional bubbling mud pool. Actually wh...