17.09.09 North of the North Island

With our life in our van we set off North of Auckland with sight seeing and shopping on our mind. We had decided Raincoats might be a sensible purchase - after living in flip flops and boardies for a few months the wardrobe lacked some winter wear.

We headed up to the northern peninsula above auckland which includes sights such as the bay of islands, 90 mile beach and absoloutly massive Kauri trees - each about 5m wide. Inbetween driving to these we did some great short walks.

Down at Piha on the west coast we stopped off to see the surf, I say see because I think Charlie is taking a bit of time to get used to colder waters again and so wasnt so keen to get in....! Back to the northern coast to the Cormmandel Peninsula which was beautiful. Here we went to Cathedral cove, the bays next to it and then hot water beach which was more surreal than I thought it would be. A fairly cold beach with water coming out the sand at 64 degrees. All you need is a spade to dig yourself a hot hole and if you can handle the heat you can sit in it until the tide comes back. We had to add some cold sea water to our hole to make it bearable!!

In a random route plan we then drove back to the west coast to Raglan, another world renowned surf spot (again too cold for Charlie!). Then on down to Waitamo Caves to lower ourselves into the underground world filled with glowworms twinkling like stars. Brilliant.

Next stop Taupo and Rotorua - volcanic activity. There is steam coming out of the ground all over the place! We jumped in some dirty stream which were hot, jumped in some nice hot spa pools at our campsites, watched geysers shooting water into the air, marvelled at the variety of colours in the earth and got a little annoyed at all the rain!!!

10.09.09 Auckland

So here we are in New Zealand.......... First on the list a campervan.......

We started our search positive and ambitious....... then we met some car salesmen and then we met some dodgy dealers, and then we saw some of the heaps they were passing as campervans........we were a little dispirited!

We went back to the cosy hostel and consoled ourselves with an amazing hot chocolate and made a plan of attack for the coming weekend car markets. The car market had a few backpackers and then the same group of dodgy dealers we had already met, oh and we forgot to take along any money!

In between van hunting we did manage some sightseeing, following which I would say Auckland is a beautiful place with a dissappointing centre.

Then came some hope from a car we found on the internet, but our first viewing was in the dark so Charlie (more positive than me!) convinced me not to worry about the smell of fresh paint and look at it again in the day........... We had found the one at last, yay we were so pleased. We took it for a mechanical check before trusting our own limited knowledge and shook on it..... let the travels begin!!!

02.09.09 Sydney

So we are a bit late on this but we did have an awesome time in Sydney! We were straight into it when we arrived - off the plane (into the cold..) to meet Charlies Australian family and then straight to the Opera House to watch the Mikado ( a play which scarred me at Primary school but I feel I am over it now!) It was a fantastic introduction ( and re intro) to Sydney.

Could the rest of the week match it? With Charlie as my personal tour guide how could it not...We went to Palm beach (Home and away) which was beautiful, I can instantly see the attraction of living in Australia. We were excited to see quite a large snake on a rock there and hurried to the internet to see how poisonous it was - it was a common green snake or something equally boring sounding - how disappointing!

In the city we visited the architectural and the art, the entertainment of Kings Cross and the drinking establishments, meeting up with friends of Charlies from the past. Our first drink was at Summit bar, a revolving bar on top of a tower - great views of what we would visit over the next few days.

And what made the whole week was how welcoming the family were.