Jenny the Wondervan

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Mum had decided that the best way for us to see the North Island of New Zealand was to hire a campervan. This meant that we could drive wherever we wanted and not have to worry about finding hotels or anything. I think mum was a little nervous about driving Jenny when we saw her as she was really big. She was 7 meters long and 3 meters high. At least they drive on the same side of the road in New Zealand as we do here in the UK.
We drove from Auckland right up to Whangarei for our first nights camping and checked into a campsite. There is lots to do for kids in campsites in NZ. Nearly all of them have kids playgrounds and there were always other kids around to play with. IN Whangarei I met a really nice German boy who was travelling round the world with his mum and dad. He was only 5 but he spoke really good English.
After Whangerei we went even further North and stayed in a place called Paihia. This campsite was on the river and I spent lots of time making friends with the ducks. Me and mum rented a canoe and I learned how to canoe down a river. I paddled it most of the way home as mum lay back in the sun. Paihia is also where we went swimming with the dolphins.
After a couple of nights we made our way down to Rotorua and Taupo where we spent quite a lot of time going to the luge and jet boating. This was my best place in New Zealand. The campsite was great and there were lots and lots of kids to play with and also the biggest jumping pillow in NZ. This is like a big trampoline that you can fit about 50 kids on.
Finally we headed south and went to Palmerson North and on to Wellington and the Zoo. Palmerston North was quite boring but mum wanted to go there as she used to work there a long time ago.

Jenny was great fun. We had a toilet and a shower in the same place. If you put the shower on you had to put the lid of the toilet down and sit on it to shower . Me and mum just used the camp showers though. We also had a cooker and a microwave and fridge. It was great to just stop anywhere and cook some pasta or make a sandwich. During the day we had seats and a table and just like a caravan at night you would make this into a bed where we slept. It was really small and if dad was there I am sure that his snoring would have kept me awake! I really enjoyed my camping holiday in Jenny and was sorry to say goodbye to her.

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