By the end of the day we reached Waitomo Caves which is a very small town. We were here as the same suggests to go caving. We booked the caving for the following day then headed out for a drive to some local attractions. All the guide books talk about Piripiri caves which are free to look at. After an hour of very twisty roads we came across the caves and realised they were not worth it. On the way back we stopped at several other spots and saw some much nicer stuff. The weather the following morning must have been [View Full Entry]

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As we headed to the Coromandel Peninsula we heard on the radio that one of the roads was closed due to flooding, half hour later it says the road is open so we continued. We got as far as Whangamata only to be turned round by the police. There was one road north and that had been completely washed away and one road east and that was covered in a massive land slide. We stopped a while in Whangamata because they were having a classic car show. The town has 4,000 residents but for this weekends show there will be 70,000 [View Full Entry]

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Today it was Carol Anne’s birthday so leaving Gisborne was certainly a good idea. It was cloudy when we left but what we were in for we could have never imagined. The road round the East Cape is meant to be really scenic but shortly after we started driving the heavens opened and it started to rain, hard. By the time we had reached the top of the East Cape you could barely see the road in front let alone the lovely views. This part of the island is hardly populated at all so we had no choice but to keep [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in Gisborne was like arriving in any other place, you just don’t know what to expect. When we arrived at the hostel we knew it was going to be one of those days. The hostel used to be an orphanage and looked like a very dated hospital. Long corridors and very dated furniture. Not to worry we said we will spend most of the time out of the hostel. That was until we realised that there was nothing to do in Gisborne. The town has three types of shops, charity shops, shops that are having closing down sales and then [View Full Entry]

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We left Taupo the next morning and headed up to Rotorua. About 20km outside the town was another set of free hot springs called Kerosene Creek. We had met an ex tour bus operator who had told us about them. While Carol Anne and Orial went in myself and Garreth decided not to bother. Just as well really as 20 minutes later a tour buss turns up and about 20 people all get off and photograph Carol Anne and Orial in the hot springs then jump back on the bus again. Once they had cooked themselves in the springs we continued [View Full Entry]

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The very next day the sun was high in the sky and there was not a cloud to be seen. Oh well. We headed up the lake towards Taupo. We had every intention of doing a sky dive in Taupo but we had not intended on it happening quite so soon. We checked into the hostel at 11.30am and booked a sky dive for the next day. After going away and thinking about it for a while we decided that it was too good a day to miss so we went back and managed to get picked up 15 minutes later. [View Full Entry]

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The plan was to get up really early and to see what the weather was like. If there was any chance of climbing the volcano we were going to get up and do it. Unfortunately although the weather was fine low down, the volcano was still completely covered in cloud. That was it we couldn’t wait around forever we had to move on we had to leave the country today!! We headed off towards Lake Taupo along the forgotten Highway. We all wondered why it was called this after a while it became quite clear. It had literally been forgotten. Parts [View Full Entry]

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Today we set off for New Plymouth. Along the way we stopped at Wanganui. It was a sleepy little town with nothing to do so we carried on up the coast road. After stopping off in a few places along the way we eventually got into New Plymouth. The town looks very strange on the map. Right slap bang in the centre is I giant dormant volcano called Mount Taranaki and then all the roads head off from the volcano towards the coast. Yet again we were unlucky with the hostel. It was like walking into a cub camp. The eating [View Full Entry]

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Heading up the Number 2 we didn't really have much of a clue what was on the North Island so as I drove Garreth, Orial and Carol Anne read the guide books. This turned into quite a neat operation as they would always find us the places to go while I was driving. It also meant that I didn’t have to think much. Our first Stop was the site where they filmed some of the Lord of the Rings. It was a nice pretty walk but you would never know that they filmed there. We soon discovered that there was nothing [View Full Entry]

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Round the corner into the harbour I had almost forgotten what a sky scrapper was as there had been none like that in the South Island. For the last few days I had been slightly apprehensive about driving in Wellington and the North Island as people had told me that it was so much busier. It turns out that so far it has been fine. The only thing wrong with driving in Wellington is the bloody stupid one-way system that seems to exist on 95% of all roads in the city. If you go wrong you have to navigate the entire [View Full Entry]

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