New Zealand North & South has begun....

Having said farewell to the famalam at Sydney Airport, we made our way to NZ North Island, starting in Auckland, and heading to the Bay of Islands, and Northland.

Before leaving Auckland airport, we nearly made a star appearance on 'Border Control'......having asked ourselves (and Mich) if we had any fruit / food to declare, we made our way through customs. Lovely little spaniel took an instsnt shine to Mich! Yep, banana in her bag. 'Sorry, we didnt know,' didnt cut it...$400 fine .

Hire car is great, with the tent, were free camping mainly, in mostly scenic spots beside lakes, rivers and in the mountains. Were all getting used to the bugs, and numerous bites. So far weve covered the North island, including Cape Reinga where two seas meet, Bay of Islands, Giant Te Paki (Huge sand dunes), 90 Mile beach, Tane Mahuta (2000 year old kauri tree) and Coromandel Peninsula.

We had a good day on the beach with so say hot springs...we dug like madmen for at least 20 mins, no hot water. We did find a spot on the beach that felt warm under foot, dug for seconds and got burnt! The water was hot, too hot to sit in, but we were chuffed we'd found some! The giant sand dunes were good for body boarding down, as well as great views out to the ocean.

Rotorua stunk of eggs (geothermal hot spot, sulphur), but was a quirky place. Seemed a good idea to visit a thermal pool, mud spa facility. Our clothes still reek of sulphur! Good laugh though, was worth the visit. Had a mare on the camp site that evening, whilst driving out in the morning managed to literally 'ditch' the hire car. After piss take and 'what we gonna do' the travellers came out the wood work (literally) and pushed me out the ditch. One of the heroes was a guy from Hillingdon, who schooled, fished and socialised with the same people, areas as i did as a kid / young teen! Small wolrd, eh!

having seen the major sights and having had our share of cold showers, fish n chips on the beaches, and morning Maccas, and having 2 rainbiow trout to the fish tally, we boarded the ferry at Wellington for a 3.5 hour trip to the South Island...

South Island first stop was Picton, where the ferry docked, following the scenic route in. Just so happened it was Picton maritime festival, we had a mosie around the town, lush weather, watched some wacky rafting competitions, kids having jellyfish fights (like to see them try in Oz), spotted some huge rays in the marina, then made our way around the coastline gravel tracks, visiting the many quiet bays and great views.

Our first night was along a huge beach, with showers and flushing loo's, yeah! (Cold shower mind). We saw glow worms in caves along the cliffs, nice. In the morning we drove down to Kaikoura, past seal colonies and miles of road works following the damage from their last serious earth quakes. Seems theres a serious lack of road kill compared to Oz? Plenty of bugs though. Hamner Springs was a nice village, indulged in a couple of beers and lush pizza (even though were $400 lighter).

Not sure Kiwi's are real...seen the Kea mountain parrot, but no Kiwis, only the warning signs on roads. (Think it may be a tourist plot and its really joined the Dodo). Christchurch is still obviously recovering from the earth quakes, plenty of historic buildings being propped up, and impressive new buildings sprung up all over. The beaches to the south of Christchurh, including Sumner beach and Taylors Mistake were worth the visit.

Mount John gave great views over Lake Tekapo, one of 10 places in the world with clear skys, known for its amazing star gazing, and resident observatory. Later today were off to Mount Cook / Aoraki, we'll keep you posted........