Travelling south to meet the ferry in Wellington and you guessed it, decided to have breakfast by the beach, unfortunately the beach we picked was a 20k detour over some rough roads and a number of hills! Consolation was that we found the beach (Ocean Beach) to be a gorgeous, isolated, sandy bay which we had more or less to ourselves …. Soon scared the randoms off! BLT's and coffee on the beach can't beat it. On the journey south to Martinborough we travelle...

PS, Here's a example of Napier style

Set off from Ohakune in poor weather and had decided to go across the mountain pass, as shorter route but were strongly advised not to as extremely narrow and untarmacked in parts, so went the long route!!. However we thought that perhaps we could see the top of Mt Ruapehu as we were travelling right past the mountain base at Whakapapa - big mistake as we ended up travelling some 4k up through thick cloud and hair raising bends only to get to the top still swathe...

Ohakune (Pronounced 'oh a koon eh' - doesn't that sound lovely) Left Lake Taupo and as the weather was improving decided to have a swim in the Lake; the water was really quite fresh but so clear, loved it. On the drive to Ohakune, stopped at a great viewpoint high up over the lake and had brunch. Arrived in Ohakune, which is the base town for the ski season on the mountain Ruapehu (We are now within the Tongariro National Park and the whole area is dominated b...

Arrived early afternoon amid a Thunderstorm, first bad weather of our trip so took slow drive around the north of the lake, how lovely it looked even in the rain. It is New Zealand's largest lake; created from a volcanic crater, 29 miles from north to south and almost 700 ft. deep in parts. The next morning we had a jet boat ride booked along by the Huka falls (Taupo Lake empties into the river Waikato via the Huka falls) - it was everything it claimed to be, a...