Round NZ in a Rocket

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Our time in New Zealand has come to an end but we managed to cram quite a lot in just over 4 weeks!

Before coming to NZ we had planned to jump on a tourist bus called The Kiwi Experience and see the country that way. However when we landed in Christchurch we had a change of heart and decided we wanted to do our own thing and do something a bit different to what we'd previously been doing. So we picked up a campervan, and that was to be our transport and home for the next 4 weeks! Was a pretty good van, had a cooker and a fridge as well as a tv and dvd player...

We set off south with the plan of reaching Queenstown for the weekend. The drive down was amazing. It took us nearly 3 days because we wanted to stop at every new place. We stayed on Lake Pukaki (photo) and then travelled down through the mountains. We arrived into Queenstown on the Friday and found out that the National Seven's championships were being held here over the weekend! The weather was amazing...and so for $5 a day we sat and watched a great tournament.

From Queenstown we travelled north up the west coast, each day driving to a new place and parking up next to a lake or river. Highlights on the coast were definitely Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers. Although we didnt go the guided trek up, we managed to walkquite a way up it, where we found the waterfall that was coming off the mountain....it was pretty cold!

The further north we got the busier the towns got and the more people we saw. The biggest being Picton, where we got the car ferry to Wellington in the North Island. Didnt stay in Wellington too long, but from what i saw i quite liked it as a city. Had a quick look around and picked up a few more dvds for the van. We then drove up the West Coast stopping at a few beaches and rivers before heading east to Napier. Again thought that was quite a nice town...both suprised at how much busier the North Island was compared to the South! We stayed in Hawkes Bay for a while before driving up to Taupo. Really liked Taupo. We stayed in a really nice campsite while we were there (they even had showers!!!) Made a nice change to washing in a river! We stayed there for about 4 or 5 days relaxing by the huge lake and also managed to watch the A1 Grand Prix and some Powerboat racing, which were both really good days out! Then headed up to the East coast through Rotarua to stay at a National Park. And that would have been a really good spot if we didnt have to share it with 1000s of mosquitos! We then made our way up to Aukland where we finally said goodbye to The Rocket! Was a really great way to see New Zealand an definitely think we made the right choice getting the van!

Flying out to Los Angeles later today and looking forward to seeing what America has in store for us!

Unfortunately the computer i'm on is not very good and keeps freezing as i try and upload photos so i'll have to send them next time i get online.

Hope everybody is well and it's not too cold back there, love luke x

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