The drive northward from New Plymouth to Kawhia would normally not be too long…unless you have a diversion planned. Having been in wetsuits once before and having white water rafted down the Shotover River why not combine the two underground? Such a trip is called 'black water tubing' and we travel to Waitomo caves again. For two hours we crawl through dark wet caves with our guide (who does this four times a day), the eerie limestone formations lit by our lamps, and ride our tubes along underground rivers with a jump or two off a (small) waterfall. A not to be forgotton experience!

Lesley has arranged to meet another of the British GPs that she met last September in Wellington, in Mount Maunganui. This location, which we visited last December, is the place where many folk run up and down Mt Maunganui, but even more soak in the hot pools. We fall into the latter category. After a night in the holiday park, a longish lunch the next day Sunday, we set off again cross country heading west arriving at Kawhia just as the fish and chip shop is closing. A young couple sitting on the quay suggest that we try the pub/restaurant around the corner, and, as eateries are few and far between in this little seaside town, we head there. It is a good choice, and not that busy (the populace are all at another bar), the attraction of which is a bit of entertainment on the TV as it is the World Cup Cricket final between Australia and New Zealand. The newspapers had suggested that employers might want to take a relaxed view on staff that could not get into work on Monday on time, and as the evening progresses it's easy to see why this would be from commiseration not celebration. At precisely 11.05 pm the dream was all over, New Zealand having lost by 8 wickets.

Hot pools have featured highly on our wish list in New Zealand. A few kms away is Ocean Beach, and if you go there an hour or so either side of low tide, with a couple of shovels, use your nose to smell the sulphur and feel the warmth beneath your feet as the tide recedes, you can dig a hole and relax in warm geothermally heated water. Being first there, we have to did a few test holes first and find warm water after about 20 minutes digging. What a jape! It is really good fun, for young and old alike!

Monday 31st will be our last night in the van and we want to stay somewhere special. Somewhere that we can remember as being quite New Zealandish, and not a holiday park. A three hour drive via the surfing town of Raglan brings us to the end of a valley at the Tasman Sea by the name of Hamiltons Gap. The site is simply a flat area of ground about a hundred metres from the sea and there are only another couple of vans there.

So we are at our last day in the van and there is still business to do! Thank goodness for free wifi in NZ libraries! When all this this done we then chase around trying to find an LPG gas refill point (usually a service station) but to no avail. The risk is that if you return not full you will be charged a disproportionate sum to fill it. However, with all due thanks to Mighty the van returns girl waives the charge. Then it is onto the airport bus, a drive across Auckland to the ferry terminal, and onto the boat for the 45 minute run to Waiheke Island.

The island is not somewhere we ever considered going to during most of our time here. But reading the guide book and with a day to spare we have organised a night's accommodation in Oneroa. The island, being only a short ferry journey from Auckland, is effectively a suburb and also popular with day trippers. Two minutes from the ferry terminal we can see why, with windy roads, sandy beaches and coves it reminds us of the Cayman Islands, it helps that it is a blue sky day as well. Bob who has rented us a beat up Nissan with 270,000 kms on the clock for a day, has found island nirvana. His rasping voice and our car engine are indistinguishable. 'I came here 5 years ago', he explains, 'California is getting just too full and unliveable these days'. A man now in older years, he has spent much of his life surfing. His old Toyota van is also his mobile office, and as his mobile rings with another customer, he pulls out his booking schedules which are all hand-written with cars and dates.

We get our final NZ sea swim in at Onetangi Bay, no towels with us but the warm breeze soon dries off our 'togs'. Then it is aboard the ferry to return to Auckland, both of saying that was a Waiheke Island is worth coming back to.

When your wife says meet me at 1pm at the Quay Street i-site, she usually means just that. I am, however, delayed in the hotel today Thursday 2nd, having attended to property enquiries, written the first half of this blog and done a wash. Lesley greets a late me and then announces that she has an early birthday present - guess what? I have no idea but am completely bowled over when she tells me she has bought two tickets for 'Let It Be', the Beatles tribute band show, tonight in Auckland. In a further re-arrangement of today, we go up the Auckland Skytower a bit earlier than planned - the Maritime Museum can wait until tomorrow! Our visit to the Skytower is a gift from Charles Johnson, who stayed with us in Edinburgh last year. Thank you so much, Charles and Natalie…..we lingered a couple of hours at the top and it was quite appropriate that our last full day in New Zealand should be spent taking in a panoramic view not quite of all New Zealand but over this city to the countryside and mountains beyond. It did not need much imagination to think of what lay beyond those horizons along long and winding roads to the north, to the south, to the east and to the west to where we watched the antipodean sun set for, I suspect, not the last time.

Footnote :

The whole thing was Lesley's idea in the first place. We don't know how many of you out there who have been reading this weighty tome for 6 months since September. You have enviable staying power! For sure there are about a dozen of you and it was really good to read all your comments. Not quite finished yet, one more instalment to come..........watch this space as they say!