Kings of the road

We arrived in Auckland safe and sound a day and half after leaving Chile. Crossing the International Date Line did mess with our heads. We lost an entire day! Good news for the budget though. Our planning for the NZ leg of our trip had been minimal. We arrived at five in the morning without a clue what we were really going to do. A friend's brother had agreed to let us crash at his empty house in a pretty suburb of the city, but we hadn't decided how we were going to get there or what we would do next.

After many many cups of fabulous coffee in the airport, the purchase of a guide book and map and much to-ing and fro-ing, we decided to hire a campervan for the full six weeks. Transport and accommodation combined. Cheaper in the long run and the ultimate in independent travel. The incredibly helpful information desk people phoned round all the hire companies for us once the offices were open and got a really competitive price. It was all a bit of a culture shock. Tourist information in South America had rarely been free and impartial. Maybe one or the other, but never both!

We picked up our free transfer to the hire company garage and were soon on our way. Our van is certainly compact and bijoux, but we love her already. She's more Barbie-and-Ken-mobile, than radical surfer dude cool, but she is very well equipped. We got a 2/3 berth de-luxe(!) Toyota diesel. The table drops down to form a huge double bed. It has a loo and shower, hot and cold running water, microwave, four ring cooker, heating and air con, even a built-in hoover. It came with all the kit we could need for six weeks on the road - even a cafetiere! How sophisticated. It has big panoramic windows at the back, so when we find somewhere beautiful to park up, we can just sit and appreciate the beauty. Probably the best thing to do in New Zealand. It certainly is a stunning country.

We were so excited to have our own multifunctional set of wheels that we headed straight out of Auckland on our second day. Our first stop was Paihia on the Bay of Islands, a picturesque holiday spot. The only way to appreciate it properly was to get out on the water and see all the little islands that gave the bay its name. There are lots of boat trips available - fast adrenaline rush trips to more sedate cruises around the islands. We opted for a boat that would take us to see, and possibly swim with dolphins (no guarantees of course) and then around all the islands and to the local attraction - a big hole in a big rock called 'the hole in the rock'.

After half an hour or so, we spotted a pod of dolphins and watched them swim along at the front of the boat, diving in and out. Graham and I had been eyeing up the rack of wetsuits and were all ready to have a go at swimming, but the captain announced there was a young dolphin in the pod and we wouldn't be allowed to swim for fear of disturbing the mother and baby. Fair enough. They were spectacular enough viewed from the deck.

The rest of the boat trip was idyllic. The sun shone down and the islands were green and tranquil. The hole in the rock was just as advertised. We got off the boat in the village of Russell, across the bay from Paihia. More historical and generally attractive than Paihia, it was a perfect place to stop for a late lunch and stroll along the sea front. A quick ride on the passenger ferry back across the bay and we were reunited with our van.

Next stop was Waitangi, the place of the signing of the treaty between Maori leaders and the UK in 1840 and considered to be the founding document of modern New Zealand. Set in a beautiful fern forest on the edge of the water, it was another tranquil place to spend a couple of hours. The original governor's house has been restored and there is a Maori meeting house adorned with intricate carvings. The massive ceremonial war canoe, or waka, on display was particularly impressive. It took a minimum of 72 people to paddle it, to give some idea of the scale. The carvings and all the historical info kept us distracted for quite a while.

After such a full day, we climbed back in the van and drove the relatively short distance over to the west coast of the northland and parked up for the night at a campsite just behind 90 Mile Beach. Actually more like 60 miles long, it is still a stunning spot. It was dark when we got there. We were still a bit jet-lagged so were awake early the next morning. We got straight up and put on our boots and walked over the dunes to see the vast stretch of hard sand and long breakers. You can drive along the beach, but not if you're in a hired vehicle, which seemed like good sense. It looked pretty wild and unpredictable out there. That early in the morning though, there was nobody around other than a cheerful dog walker and his friendly mutt. The early light on the wet sand and the crash of the waves would be enough to put anybody in a good mood. We started to feel like we were really on holiday.

We had the urge to drive to the top of the North Island, probably just because we could. We set off and I had my first go at driving the van. I thought I was doing fine, but Graham seemed a little tense. We pulled in at the last fuel stop before the unpaved roads of the Aupori Peninsula and couldn't understand why everybody came running out of the garage and started shouting and waving. Neither of us had seen the height limit warning sign. We had dislodged the sign and got it stuck on the top of our van. With the help of a tall man using his broom to prop up the sign we were able to reverse our way out of the situation. It could have happened to either of us, but just my luck to be behind the wheel. No damage done, but Graham hasn't let me have another go since...

The tip of the North Island, Cape Reinga, was wind-battered and desolate, but beautiful. Once the tour buses had gone, we felt totally alone up there. It's uninhabited and wild and we spent a while just soaking up all the ruggedness. Standing by the lighthouse marking the cape, you can actually see the wildness of the currents where the oceans crash into one another. It would have been nice to camp up there, but we made do with a brew and quick lunch in the back of the van, then headed back down south.

After a long drive back down the peninsula, we stopped in Kaitaia for supplies. The late afternoon drive down towards Rawene and Hokianga Harbour took us through the most gorgeous hilly pasturelands and forests. It all looked very Hobbity, but we're not sure if we were anywhere near any Lord of the Rings sites at all. We arrived just in time to catch the last ferry across the water to Rawene as the sun went down.

The next day we started early and headed off in search of Kauri trees. Nothing really prepares you for coming face to trunk with these massive woody giants. The country used to be covered in them, but European settlers pretty much chopped the lot down. A few of the really huge ones still remain and are very well protected by the Department of Conservation. There are beautifully constructed boardwalks through the forest to get to the trees, which have very fragile roots near the surface of the soil, so just walking on the ground near them can damage them. The tallest Kauri is reckoned to be 1200 years old, is 6m wide and grows 18m straight up before the branches start. That was pretty amazing. Then we drove a bit further and walked through the forest to see the widest of them all. It was just a huge wall of trunk with what seemed like a mini-forsest up in its branches. Awesome. We found a few smaller ones to hug for extra good vibes.

Our last stop was the huge Kauri museum in the tiny village of Matakohe. The museum put the whole tree thing into a social context. It has an original saw mill and hundreds of exhibits about how people worked with the trees and how important Kauri were to the people who chopped them all down. No mean feat given the girth, but pretty tragic given the extent of the devastation.

By the time we had finished with all the trees, it was getting late so we continued our drive south and pitched up at the beach just north of Auckland again. We were exhausted after cramming so much into the first few days of our trip, but the Northland had been worth it. Balmy temperatures and lush greenery and the contrasting calm and pretty west coast and wild east coast all in one package.

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