Back to civilisation, in possibly the most civilised country in the world

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After 4 months in South America we had become accustomed to speaking (bad) Spanish everyday, in Brazil we had hidden our valuables in secret money belts; in Peru and Bolivia we had got used to carrying toilet paper around with us everywhere we went; being stared at, worrying about being scammed or mugged and being called 'gringo' had become normal. So when Luke left his bag with all his valuables at the customs check point in New Zealand Airport we were more than delighted when we came back half an hour later to find it still there, with nothing missing. We were now on the most familiar, unfamiliar soil in the world. Welcome to New Zealand.

After the 13 hour flight we had been robbed of a day of our lives, as we crossed the date line on the Pacific ocean we had added 24 hours onto our journey, we vowed to get this time back one day. After checking into our hostel which was situated diagonally opposite the famous Auckland Sky Tower, it was still only 8am so, although very jet lagged, we managed to spend the whole day planning our journey through New Zealand. We had decided that the cheapest and most flexible way to travel around both the North and South Island would be to hire a camper-van. We visited a couple of hire companies and after regretfully turning down a van that had all four members of The Beatles spray painted on the side because it was falling to bits, we decided on an almost brand-spanking new camper-van called 'Chats'.

That evening we had a quick bite to eat at one of Aucklands many Asian food courts, we found ourselves still uttering the odd Spanish phrase to waitresses and shop keepers. After a good nights sleep at our hostel we got up early the next day, picked up Chats, went to the supermarket and filled up with camper-friendly food and got on our merry way. Our first destination was Rotorua, on the way we visited the Waitomo Caves to see the famous Waitomo Glowworms which are unique to New Zealand.

Before we got to the caves we walked through the deep limestone shaft known as the Tomo and the Cathedral cavern where the elite can get married and audiences including Sting and Rod Stewart have visited to see famous opera singers perform due to the near perfect acoustics created by the formation of the cavern.

Further into the cave we spotted a couple of the glowworms and our guide explained to us that the glow is created by food rotting into waste, basically the beautiful light is actually poo. This fact took a bit of the romance out of the tour until we ventured even further into the cave and went on a small boat. In total darkness and absolute silence we entered the deepest cave where thousands of these tiny creatures radiated their luminescent light. It was spectacular. For obvious reasons we weren't allowed to take photo's in the cave so we bought some postcards to remember what it looked like.

After this we carried on driving through to Rotorua. Located on a volcanic plateau which covers much of the Central North Island, Rotorua sits on an area that has made it famous for its geysers, hot mud pools and steaming craters. As we approached the town we could see clouds of steam rising up around the trees, as we saw more and more we decided to pull over and take a proper look. We found ourselves in a park surrounded by dozens of steaming, boiling pools of water, and bubbling, burping pools of mud. We likened this to the 'bog of eternal stench' from the film Labyrinth not only for the spluttering sounds that the pools made but also the horrid sulphur smell that they were emitting. The whole place stunk of rotten eggs.

It was starting to get dark by now so we decided it was time to find somewhere to park up for the night. One of the main reasons we chose a camper-van was because it worked out to be the most economical way to explore New Zealand. We had decided not to use expensive campsites at night; instead just find somewhere safe to pull over and stay. New Zealand is an ideal place to do this as they have recently brought in strict laws on drivers falling asleep at the wheel, dedicated 'rest stops' line most of the highways and most are in picturesque locations, and even have a park bench or two. If the police find you sleeping at one of these rest stops they cant move you on because you are simply being a safe driver and taking a nap.

Our first night however we spent in a car park just outside Rotorua. Chats had come equipped with all the latest camping gear, he was a tardis. Inside we had two sofas and a table which collapsed and adjusted into a very comfortable double bed at night. Under one of the sofas and reachable from the boot was the 'kitchen' consisting of one gas stove and all the utensils we needed. We'd also been given a portable DVD player with a selection of DVDs. As I was to be the driver for the duration of the trip, Luke nominated himself as cook.

The next day we went in search of more thermal activity and visited the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland where everyday at exactly 10.15am a geyser erupted a huge fountain of hot water sometimes spurting up to 20 meters in the air. The weather for this wasn't very good so we were drenched from head to toe in rain before it had even erupted, it was amazing to watch and afterward we spent the day walking around the rest of the park. We saw a smorgasbord of thermal pools including the champagne pool, geysers, bubbling mud, steaming ground, expansive vistas, huge volcanic craters and sinter terrace formations.

Still soggy from walking around the thermal park we listened to the weather report on the radio as we drove away at the end of the day. 'Spring storms' were hitting the North Island. Our next destination was Lake Taupo where we planned to do our skydive, it was meant to be one of the best places in New Zealand to do it so we'd been planning on doing it here since the beginning of our trip. When we arrived we had a little drive around the town and visited the information centre. We got a telephone number for the local skydive company and with the rain still beating down on us we called to make a booking. 'Weather permitting' we were booked in to dive the next day at 1pm. We had to call them half an hour before to make sure it was still going ahead.

That night we stayed on some land by a river owned by a farmer who very kindly let campers stay on it for free, so long as you didn't stay for more than 28 days it was OK by him. As we tried to get to sleep that night the rain battered down on the roof of the van and we were doubtful of any skydives the next day. When we woke in the morning, the sun was trying to poke through the grey clouds but the wind was strong and the rain kept falling. We were told it was unlikely that we would be able to go up that day but they could book us in for the next day. With the storms not looking likely to shift for sometime we decided it wasn't meant to be and hoped we could find somewhere equally as beautiful in the South Island to do it instead. Unfortunately the rain and the clouds didn't make Taupo a very fun place to hang around so that afternoon we decided to move on.

Our next destination was the world famous Tongariro National Park. The weather seemed to get worse the more we drove and by the time we started to approach the National Park Village which borders the World Heritage Tongariro National Park we could barely even see the ditch at the side of the road, rain was bouncing off the road and a heavy fog had created a wall between us and some of the most spectacular views in New Zealand. Views from the village are meant to include Mount Tongariro, Mount Ruapehu and Mount Ngauruhoe - the mountain used as 'Mount Doom' in the Lord of the Rings.

It was disappointing as we had planned to do a one day hike known as the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. The trek takes you from alpine meadows to mountain summit with stunning volcanic features along the way. During the trek you walk across a lunar landscape of craters, scattered pumice, active volcanoes, mountain springs, lava flows, emerald lakes, piles of scoria and statue-like mounds of volcanic desert. We vowed to come back and do this one day. That evening we stayed in a nearby town called Ohakune, famous for its carrots. We found a quiet place to stop next to a small green with a 7 meter high carrot statue planted in the center.

With all the bad weather we were having we decided the next day to head straight to Wellington, the capital city, where we would stay a few nights and then catch a ferry to the South Island and hopefully some better weather. When we arrived we decided to visit their Te Papa museum as it was free, it wasn't that interesting so after wandering around for 10 minutes we left. As we were now in a big city we were a bit concerned where we would be able to park ourselves for the evening. We drove about 10 minutes out of the city, with the sun finally making an appearance and the sea on our left. It was a beautiful drive and we managed to find a stunning spot off the road and a few meters away from the sea to stay. We spent both out nights there and during the day we wandered around the city which felt much smaller than Auckland with hardly any high-rise buildings; there are lots of boutique style shops, cute cafes and restaurants.

The ferry from Wellington to Picton was an unexpected tour in itself. After getting though the choppy part of the sea, the Cook Straight, we spent the second half of the trip going through the Marlborough Sounds where the sea was once a glacier that sliced it's way through the land leaving carved out mountains in it's path. Now the mountains are dozens of beautiful islands surrounded by calm sea. After a few hours admiring the views we arrived in Picton, and the sun was shining.

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