Today we woke up to the sound of rain and so decided to head into town and do some organisational stuff - we also managed to find a wonderful little cafe called Fat Dog where we had a superb brunch, including great coffee for me and a huge bowl of hot chocolate for Nic. Rotorua is also known as sulphur city - must be something to do with the all pervasive stench and steam arising from the strangest locations. In the campsite we could hear bubbling from our ...

We had to be up quite early today as we had booked a boat trip out to White Island, which has NZ most active volcano. The boat was called Pee-Jay and we were all aboard and raring to go by 0915. The trip out to the island took about 1 and a half hours, and I spent the trip sat right at the front (pretending to be Kate Winslett in Titanic). The island was truly breathtaking and like nothing I have ever seen before. As we approached the bay there was a ...

Up and to the beach again - we are now 2 bronzed beach babes - well we are a bit darker than we were anyway!! Next we set off along the Bay of Plenty, named thus by Captain Cook in 1769 when he landed here in the Endaevour. The name relates to the very friendly Maori who were here and gave him lots of supplies. We stopped by the side of the road for lunch and were disconcerted to find our picnic table being shared by numerous chickens and hens - we t...

We decided to spend some time on the beach at Waipu Cove, before setting off around the peninsula on the no 25 highway. The road around the area was beautiful, with the sea on one side and hills immediately on the other. This road is often closed as it is quite common for the sea to come up over it, but fortunately this was not the case today. The drive around the Coromandel was like a race track - very windy, with hairpin bends, which meant very slow driving ...

Once we were up we decided to head down to the beach and spend a couple of hours there before setting out again. This way it was not too hot to sunbathe and we weren't in the van all day - sensible, eh? The beach was beautiful, as they all are here, and quiet. The perfect spot to read a few chapters and splash around in the sea. For those of you out there who don't know - I love being in the sea and get too hot on the beach and so go in for a dip quite of...