Arriving in Auckland earlier than planned gave us more than a week to sell our wonderful camper. We'd grown quite attached to her! Our first two nights in Auckland were spent in a campsite near Devonport. In order to sell the van we had to get a Warrant Of Fitness (W.O.F.) so we found a place to do that and then began to pack our things and clean up our mess. Early the next morning we drove to the test centre and waited while it was carried out. Sadly the van f...

Doubtless Bay was a gorgeous stop in the Northlands. We found a DOC campsite beside a perfect quiet and untouched golden beach. After exploring the beach (and writing Hayleys birthday message in the sand) we decided to stay for a few nights. Luckily the sun shone bright and the rain made only the odd appearance. Only once or twice did the autumn rain fall so hard that we had to lock ourselves in the van. In the day we munched on bbq food cooked on a small disposa...

The route planning to the Bay of Islands wasn't our best. We ended up driving winding roads and figured out, when it was too far to turn back, that we could have drove on the motorway and took a short cheap ferry across. We drove nearly three quaters of the way and realised we it was time to set up camp. Sadly the DOC that we too a detour to was closed so we paid money to stay in a really rundown campsite with filthy facilities. Despite the lovely beach we were s...

It was a long drive to the Peninsular in the north of the island. The rain along with traffic jams in Auckland made the journey even less enjoyable. We began exploring the east coast stopping at various beaches popular with locals. A popular place for tourists and locals was Hot Water Beach. In the summer months people dig holes in the sand and sit in the warm pools of water that form. Sadly it was too cold to strip off and sit on a windy beach so we kept our h...

We arrived at Waitomo late after a day exploring Hobbiton. The area consisted of numerous caving companies and one single pub. Previous to our arrival we had chosen to explore the caves with the Black Water Rafting company so immediately booked ourselves on a full day trip called the Abyss.The tour started early the following morning and we were the only two people on our day trip into the caves. We got kitted out in a thermal wetsuit, boots, helmet and harness b...