Hello Bloggers and all, We drove to the train station about 10 minutes away from where the freedom camping car park was; we parked up for free and hopped on the train that was due at 8.35. It was a £10.50 return ticket price each which is more than it would have cost to drive but we didn’t want the risk of driving that massive thing around the busy center of Auckland, and also it would have cost a lot to park in the Centre too. Once we arrived we went around a few of the shops, Neil wanted to go to the NZ shop called Lulumon Athletic where he had his eye on this t-shirt for the past few weeks. He bought it. We loved everything in the shop! They have a few in London ... read more

Hey Everyone, We woke up this morning in the peninsular just off Tairua at the overnight parking site we had stayed at. We had breakfast in the camper then headed along the SH25 towards Auckland. We had looked at ‘camper mate’ app to see if there were any free places to park in or near Auckland but there was nothing. So we drove to Pukekohe, which is about an hour drive south of Auckland. We parked up about 11.30am, as it is winter season now, there was no one parked up there so we didn’t have to worry about the limited parking available for campers. We had lunch when we arrived, using up what we have in the fridge. As we only have 3 days left with the camper we need to start using up the ... read more

Hello People, Woke up in Te Aroha, our plan was to to drive to Coromandel Town today, first however we decided to get some shopping as the cupboards were bare, and there was also a library so we could charge up our electronics and get some Wi-Fi to let people know we were still alive!! Once we had everything sorted it took about 1h30 to drive to the Coromandal area, along the beautiful winding coast, although the water was very muddy, and as it was so windy it was causing the dirty foam from the sea to spay out onto the road (and our windscreen). When we arrived we had a very lazy day. We parked up where we knew we could be parked for the night, we had a stroll around the town (which took ... read more

We woke up early as the docks entrance was near the car park and the heavy-duty trucks start early in the morning. We had planned to walk up Mount Manganuni, however the rain was teaming down!!! We decided to have a nice easy morning instead and read in the morning head to the local burger king to get Wi-Fi and just to relax. In the afternoon we were going to Te Puke to meet my friend Sasha; we had worked together on the Pacific Jewel. Early afternoon we headed to Te Puke, where she works, however once we got there I got a message that she was at home in Papamoa beach area so we had to turn around and head back towards hers. We arrived at Sasha’s after getting some directions from a stranger (normal ... read more

Hello everyone, We had a lie in this morning, and luckily the temperature was fairly warm in the camper this morning, so I even made it out of bed first to put the kettle on the stove. After getting fuel in town we drove 15 minutes north to the Huka Falls just outside Taupo. These falls are where NZ’s longest river, the Waikato, pushes through a narrow chasm causing a dramatic 9m-drop into the rushing currents. We took some photos from the footbridge then drove along the 5 all the way up to Rotorua. We drove 20 minutes northeast to got to Hells Gate, an impressive geothermal reserve. The English name originates from the 1934 visit by George Bernard Shaw. The 10 hectares reserve allows for a 2.5km walk around all the incredible geothermal activity happening ... read more