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Today was a different story. It was action-packed to the gills. Awoke to a very cool view out the back of the van. Not a bad little campsite location-wise. Shame about the cold showers. First stop was Whangarei. We weren’t going to bother as we’d heard it wasn’t a very interesting town. But we thought as we’re passing through and this would be the only time we’d ever have the chance to see the largest falls in NZ, we’d stop for 5 mins....

We left Isla & Neil’s around lunchtime laden down with oranges freshly picked from the garden and headed to Northland. It was absolutely peeing it down. I am writing this in retrospect and can’t for once remember what we actually did apart from stop for petrol & supermarket supplies in Warkworth and go to a campsite in Ruakaka. Which sounds like a pretty boring afternoon. But I guess every day can’t be filled with exciting moments....

Feeling pretty hanging today after all that red wine. Isla & Neil were excellent tour guides despite the headaches. Took us to Muahai to see the gannet colony, unfortunately this was the only time of the year when there were no gannets. Almost got washed away when an surprise wave covered us. Next stop Auckland Museum where we had to put on our best Kiwi accents to get an Aucklander free entry sticker followed by a stroll along Mission Bay & a drive around Auckland city centre....

Had a nose around Coromandel town and not much was going on. A few little cafes & souvenir shops plus a bakery that served up good seafood pie. Drove down the west coast of the peninsula with lovely views all the way, then stopped at the most random place for lunch next to a bird reserve with no views of the sea. Managed to make it to Auckland mid-afternoon and can’t get over the size of the place....

Our morning consisted of digging a hole in the sand and sitting in a shallow pool of water trying to keep it at a pleasant temperature which seemed near impossible as cold water shot out of one area and scolding hot water came out of another. We were at Hot Water Beach. Lunch at the beach. The afternoon consisted of a 30min stomp along the coastline to catch the last of the sun on 2 secluded beaches divided by Cathedral Cove....

Didn’t get very far today. The plan had been to see Tauranga in the morning and start heading up to Coromandel this afternoon. We’re still in Tauranga. Started off at the art gallery for a bit of culture. It was very nice. Stopped for a yummy coffee & delicious home-baked sausage roll at the Dry Dock Cafe where we chatted to the owner who has inspired me even more to run my own business....

We have been away for 9 months now. Awoke to a chillier day and made for another local attraction – the 10am opening of the dam. An amazing piece of engineering, apparently. Pulled up in the car park at 9:40 and made a nice cup of tea before wandering over 10 mins later to wait for the dam to open. It finally dawned on us 15 mins later that the dam was already open....

Glorious sunshine filled the crystal clear blue skies and what was going to be a quiet day with a quick visit to the thermal spa and then onto Rotorua turned into another adrenaline-filled day in the form of SKYDIVING! At 10:40 we thought we’d just ring up to enquire about how much it was and if they were flying today. An hour later we were at the centre getting into our gear and at 12:45 we were climbing into Taupō Tandem Skydive’s banana coloured plane with a large toothy grin on the front (of the plane....

Whilst having our breakfast overlooking the lake we were suddenly surrounded by cars. What is going on? We are in the middle of nowhere again but all these people are turning up and getting out of their cars with their thermos’ to have a natter. It finally dawns on us they are most probably here for some memorial as almost all of them are wearing black. And there we are munching on toast with the radio blaring out Katy Perry & Lady Gaga....

The sun is out again. And it’s actually quite mild. Didn’t sleep too well as spooked out by being in a campsite in the middle of nowhere surrounded by loud rustling trees and, so it turns out, fields of sheep. Hawkes Bay is another famous wine region in NZ. Spent an hour in Hastings. It has a train track running through the centre of a fountain. Wine-tasted at one cellar door called Black Barn near Havelock North....