iHad a great day today, had a walk through an area with lots of geothermic activity, steam everywhere had to watch my step!Losing track of days, might forget to get on the plane home!... read more

Stayed in Auckland by beach again. Got chatting to a lecturer in Maori History, learnt a lot abouth the culture. Supposed to have been volunteering today but it all went a bit wrong. Long story. Went to Hamilton and Pirongia instead, and took a walk through Pirongia Forest Park. Using a very dodgy PC and taking an age to type this so will sign off for now. Staying at Otorohanga tonight. Got a tour booked for Waitomo Caves tonight.... read more

Having loads of issues getting local sim to work and no internet access to update blog at this campsite.Just bent O2's ear about all problems I have been having unlocking my phone. They are going to to try again but may take up to 7 days.Anyway they have agreed to credit my account to cover cost of emailing using my UK sim in New Zealand because of their cock up!!!nnot updatad a bit of an off day today as very sleepy due to strong anti histamines pharmacist gave me yesterday. So only travelled for 3 very short hops today. Insect bites have gone down loads so hopefully I won't need to take as many tomorrow.... read more

Hi having loads of problems adding photos since a I installed an update on my phone! Today I visited 90 Mile Beach, it is hard to describe the scale of this beach as the name suggests it is very long. You can also drive along the full length of the beach and as the signs say "normal road rules apply". The distances between places is huge and communities are very small, the only reason you know that somenone lives in these remote areas is because of the mail boxes on the main road. Satnav is routinely telling me to travel 30K before the next turn! Crossed a very wide river on a very small ferry earlier today. Planning to stick in the same area tomorrow for a good view of a solar eclipse.... read more

Did not quite make it to 90 mile beach only to the sanddunes at the edge I havea attached a photo. Did make it to Cape ??? at the very northern tip of the North Island. Also saw a staircase carved inside a huge ancient tree trunk which had been dug out of a peat bog. Found another amazing beach at Rawawa??. No beach at this campsite, I have to walk at whole 2 minutes to get a harbour view. Almost forgot about the sheep being herded up themain road!! Sorry unable to upload photos due to poor wifi connection, will try again when I to a settlement with more than a 100 houses, could be a while!... read more