On Friday (10th) we headed to the campervan rental place to pick up our van for the next 6 and a half weeks. On our way there we realised we had actually booked the van for the 11th DOH! Lesson of the day- dont read the paperwork 6 weeks before and guess which date you think it said!! Luckly enough we were able to pick it up a day early and get on the road. Getting out of Auckland was as fun as you would imagine, but we finally made it up to Uretiti Campsite, a Department of Conservation (DOC) campsite which costs about £5 and you sleep yards away from the shoreline.... perfect!

The next day we woke up and realised there was surf, but unfortunately no where to rent or buy a board, so we are currently checking every town/ hostels/ surf shops we come across to see if anyone is trying to sell one. Watching other people surf when you have no board is a little frustrating so we hit the road and headed to a waterfall (Whangarei falls), which were beautiful. Next we took on the extremely bendy roads which passed many a surf beach and finally we ended up at our next DOC campsite, again costing £5 again sleeping yards from the shoreline, this one was an hour from Russell and called North Whangaruru, Puriri Bay.

Given the bay we woke up to was so amazing we hired some kayaks and went off exploring the coastline, around every corner was a new bay and hidden beaches. When our arms couldn't take anymore we jumped back in the van and headed into Russell to see what boat tours were available. Booking the Rock tour (an overnight tour around the bay of islands) for the next day, we jumped on a car ferry to Paihia where the tour goes from and found a campsite for the night, it was a bit more expensive but we needed to recharge our camper battery and lets face it have a dam good shower, we finished the day with a BBQ.

So we have just got back from our Rock tour and it was absolutely unbelieveable. After hitching into town to save money (don't worry mum its very safe out here) we boarded the boat to find a pool table, a bar and a good bunch of travelers. We started with some paint ball target shooting, then did a bit of fishing (for our dinner), I also learnt to gut and fillet a fish. After a BBQ we did some night kayaking in which you could see all the phosphorescence and a beautiful starry night, this was followed by night swimming and then sleeping in our bunk beds.

The next day after breakie and an early morning jump of the boat session we did some snorkeling and collected sea urchin from the bottom of the sea (lunch). We then headed to Robinson Island and climbed to the top to see some amazing views before we climbed back down to chill on the beach. We then headed back to Paihai Harbor and now we are just at the campsite before we head into town for a valentines day fish and chips.

Tomorrow we will be swimming with dolphins and the day after we are heading north to the 90 mile beach to do sand boarding, so I guess I will have more to write about.

Chops xx