Finally stopped driving for long enough to write a blog!

---

hey everyone, hope you are well. sorry about no blog updates for a few days but james has been a superstar and been driving us for about 300 miles a day, so not had much time to stop! We are now in Rotorua and decided to stay here two nights to give us time to catch up with everything, including sleep!
So on wednesday we picked up the campervan from Mangere, outside of Auckland so had to get taxi there, the campervan is really cute, we've called her (i decided it was a her!) 'Dora the Explorer', she can be a bit slow sometimes and she doesn't like it when james puts her into reverse, but other than that she is lovely and being a great travel companion!!!
Once we picked up Dora we went to the supermarket to get supplies as we have a fridge and cooker and grill, then drove to Whangarei (north of Auckland, we decided to go all the way north, then back down again) where we stopped for the night. We became members of the Top 10 holiday park company so we get 10% off every night we stay there.
Thursday we drove to the Bay of Islands, stopped for pics and fuel in Paihia (fuel is pretty expensive, we've gone from spending about 150 pounds a week altogether to around 300, mainly due to petrol! also NZ is more expensive than OZ). Anyway then stopped off in KeriKeri and Coopers Beach, then drove all the way to the top of the island to Cape Regina, but it was pitch black out and the winds were so strong that poor Dora was swaying and we thought we were going to end up over the cliff edge so decided to head back pretty swiflty! At least we've been to the very top of the island though, after heading right to the top, we basically turned around and drove back down again and stopped of at the top 10 holiday park in whatuwhiwhi (great name!). We got there so late but made dinner in the camp kitchen where we found a new friend (a black cat that went mad for our salami!) We put the TV on in the camp TV area in hope of wimbledon news, but no luck, which james did not like!!!
Friday we spoke to Linda's (my sister) friend who live near auckland to arrange a time to meet but they are busy busy so not sure if we're gonna get to see them, then before leaving the whatuwhiwhi top 10 resort we hired the spa pool for half an hour for a bit of relaxation and pamering! We then continued back down towards auckland through really windy roads and through the Raetea forest. We stayed at the Auckland north shore top 10 for the night, took a dip in the heated pool before bed.
Saturday we left auckland to go down south toward the waitomo caves to see the gloworms, when we arrived the caves had been flooded due to the heavy rainfall which was annoying cos it was completely out of our way. James prefers to get all the driving done in one go rather than small bits, so he drove us from there for another 3 hours to Rotorua, we arrived around 6ish last night, got checked in, then walked through town to the Polynesian Spa, which has been voted one of the top 10 spa in the world for three years running. The Spa is Sulphur water and really warm, the whole town smells of sulphur which is an eggy fart smell, nice(!) Definitely going to need to do a washing load when we leave and go onto the next place!
Today we've just been chilling in our camper and came into town for the internet, we were going to go to a maori village and have a traditional maouri dance and meal but its too expensive and money is running short here.
Tomorrow morning we leave, we are going to go via a geothermal hot spot to see mud pool and geysers, then head down to Lake Taupo, we plan to get to wellington around thursday to see James' uncle and cousins.
Will write again then probably, until then, much love, h&j xx
p.s. well done linda on your first for your degree!
p.p.s. i heard from uni about my placement from sep-dec and i'm going to be in Wolfson medical rehabilitation centre (Copse Hill), working with patients with neurological conditions who have gone through the acute stage! Am exciting, sounds challanging but in a good way!

---

Comments

[hayleyandjames]

From Hayley - Forgot to tell you i went to the doctors!
Forgot to write that when we picked up Dora we were near a airport doctors where you could walk in, so i thought i would go about my throat, waiting for about half an hour, had to pay $100, just to be told i was fine!!! Apparently my tonsils are smaller than average, and i'm coughing due to the change in weather and need to take my asthma pump daily, he gave me a perscription for antibiotics incase my tonsilitus does come back, but he said i was fine! Which is good, but annoying i spend $100 on it, will try and claim it back from the insurance. Also got my hair trimmed (the side fringe part) cos it was annoying me! hayley x

[Kirsty]

Hi guys, sounds like you're packing a lot in. Don't understand why everything is more expensive, are you dividing everything by three? We found fuel half the price of England, evrything was a lot cheaper than Oz. Also being out of season it should be really cheap. Top ten parks are the most expensive though. Hope the weather improves for you, stay safe. Love and kisses to both x x x x