Today we woke early after a very disturbed night. Some other campers were noisy, the van rattled, the mobile rang, Alex woke up and then a siren went of at 7am. Breakfast was croissant and a strangely called Belgian pain au chocolat. We were on the road just after 9 having arrange a tour in Matamata and accomodation for Rotarua. We then did a quick shop at Woolworths and were on the road proper by 10. The aim of today was simple, to get south of Auckland. ...

Today started with a phonecall home to see how the car was and if it had passed it's MOT without too much work. It had and only cost £212 - phew !We decided to follow the coast road to get towards the Kauri forests. This was a lovely drive scenery wise but a little challenging for the driver. It was not so much the twisty nature of it but the unpredictable road surfaces and roadworks. It was very apparent they had had land slips and the road had suffered as ...

Lunch on a view point just like the brochures

This morning was about getting ready to leave which involved me showering two little girls. Alex is really good about getting showered, Elizabeth is not. For the first time this trip we have no idea where we will be staying, it all depends on where we end up at the right time tonight. We headed out on Highway 10 to start our drive towards Kaitaia. Our plan for today was to find things as they took us with lunch around Manganoui. We had been told we could get...

sunny day and have had fish and chips on the beach. girls enjoying a nice play park