So on the way to Rotorua we got pulled over by the police because Rodney was bellowing smoke out as we chugged up a hill. It only confirmed our worries that Rodney was on his way out! We made it to Rotorua and checked into a caravan park and went and had a little walk around. Now Rotorua is all built on geothermal things so it stinks.....nearly as bad as Kams wind (and thats saying something) so with the lovely smell in the air we wandered down to ...

We were really looking forward to Taupo as we thought it would be similar to Queenstown on the South Island. Its nothing like Queenstown!!! It was really busy and the weather was awful most of the time we were there, we did manage to do a walk to Huka Falls which were some very impressive falls. We had about a 2 hour walk to see them along a chrystal clear river, the river has to go through this very narrow chasm and the power of the water was amazing to see, it...

We camped at a DOC camp just outside Tongariro NP which was very pleasant, unfortunatly we had one of the worse nights sleep ever and I some how managed to pull a muscle in my neck and was in agony! We decided to go to Whakapapa village and do a walk. Tongariro NP has 3 peaks and they are very pituresque, one of them had been used as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films but as we havent seen the films we were none the wiser!! We did a walk to Taranaki falls ...

Ok well this entry is going to be the shortest ever. We left Wellington and headed up the west coast towards Mt Taranaki. We stopped in a small town (small city) to get 2 new tyres for Rodney. After a brief lunch stop on a beach we continued our very dull journey towards the Mountain. When we finally got close we could see it in the distance and it was very impressive. looked just as they described, like Mt Fuji. The way it leveled out was very graceful at the b...

After sailing from Picton on the Interislander and seeing Colin waving a red cloth and going inside to grab some breakfast while the extended family stood waving paddles wildly around the next corner we arrived in Wellington. The journey was really smooth and only took 3 hours. We stayed at the Top 10 in the Lower Hutt area of Wellington. It was the busiest place we had been to since Christchurch. We drove on a busy highway to reach the park. Upon arrival we deci...