The next day we drove to Napier where we had decided to stay for a couple of days.

Napier is famous for its Art Deco architecture, a result of rebuilding following an earthquake in the 1930’s which destroyed much of the town. We drove up to the top of a hill in the middle of the town which had great views over Hawke’s Bay and the town.

We enjoyed a day relaxing in the town and van, making the most of the sunny weather. We also paid a visit to Opossum World which is a slightly disturbing shop stuffed with possum-related products, and an associated exhibition of the life and times of a possum in NZ.

After a couple of days in Napier we moved on towards Lake Taupo in the centre of the North Island. The journey was very scenic, passing fabulous waterfalls and landscapes formed following volcanic erruptions at Taupo.

As we travelled, the weather changed and it started to rain. And it rained and rained and didn’t look like stopping.

Arriving in Taupo we checked in at the campsite and then went for a meal in town. It continued to rain on and off for the rest of the day.

The next day we drove the short distance to a couple of the local Taupo attractions; the Huka Falls and the Craters of the Moon .

The Falls were in full flow after the rain, letting the water out of Lake Taupo into the Waikato River. It continued to rain while we were there, and hadn’t really stopped for a day or so.

The Craters of the Moon is a strange place. Formed when the nearby Geothermal Power Station was constructed in the 1950’s causing the water-table level to drop and causing the remaining water to boil up through the ground reating craters and steaming vents. The area is quite eerie, particularly in the gloomy rain-soaked weather we were experiencing. Clouds of steam rise from craters and vents, mud pools bubble and there’s a smell of sulpur. Strange but interesting place, and free to visit.

The next day we drove down to the Tongariro National Park, again in the rain. Having seen the area in the Lord of the Rings films, where it was used to depict the wastelands of Mordor, I had expected to drive through miles of volcanic rocky landscape. In contrast the area was actually very green and it’s only as you get higher up and closer to the various volcanoes and mountains that the area starts to take on the expected character.

As we drove up through Whakapapa, and past the Grand Chateau, the weather got worse and cloud came down. Reaching the end of the road at Iwikau Village and the Whakapapa Ski Field on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu, the mountains had disappeared into the cloud and the rain poured down.

We popped into the shop and bought some bits and pieces, and by the time we emerged the rain had stopped and the cloud had lifted so we could walk around a little and take some photos, including one of the neighbouring cloud-cloaked mountains Mount Ngauruhoe, which was digitally enhanced in the LotR film trilogy to play the part of Mount Doom.

We then drove back down to the Tawahi Falls in the greener area of the park to take some photos and have a spot of lunch.

After that it was on to Rotorua for a few days.

I’ve been slack so will catch up rapidly, probably skipping lots of detail that I’ve forgotten in the few weeks since the last update.

After the Coromandel Peninsular we drove East through Tauranga to Ohope (just past the town of Whakatane). Nice campsite, another Top 10 with access straight onto the beach.

The next day we drove right along the coast to Te Araroa, and then took the 20km gravel road to East Cape, the most easterly part of New Zealand, which is also home to the most Easterly lighthouse in the world (i.e. furthest East from the Greenwich Meridian). We didn’t walk up the hill to the lighthouse, but did take some photos of the area.

After driving back along the road we drove South down the East coast to Gisbourne. The roads along the way were in a pretty poor condition with large sections of road washed away during the Winter which slowed the journey quite a bit.

We reached Gisbourne quite late after a long tiring drive, but having enjoyed the countrside and views of the East Cape area.

I’ve uploaded more photos. this time from Wellington to Napier which is where we currently stopped.

We’ve been round the East Cape from Whakatane to Gisbourne which was a long drive, then arrived in Napier yesterday.

The next day we continued our journey north and made it to Waipapakauri beach near Kaitaia. This is at one end of Ninety Mile Beach (which isn’t 90 miles long, not even 90 km!).

The campsite was close to the beach and we went and walked on the beach for a while. Ninety Mile Beach is unusual in that it’s part of the official highway system in NZ, and it’s perfectly legal (and normal) to drive along the sand, though a 4WD vehicle is recommended.

It’s a beautiful, long sandy open beach, and people were out playing in the sea, riding horses and bikes as well as driving along the seashore.

Deciding not to venture all the way to the North Cape, another 70km+, we drove along SH10 past Daubtless Bay and Cable Bay, through Whangaroa, Kerikeri and Paihia in the Bay of Islands, and then took the vehicle ferry from Opua to Okiato, finally driving to Russell, the oldest European settlement in New Zealand. Nice little town with lots of old buildings, but now quite obviously a wealthy area, and the most expensive campsite we’d come across (over NZ$30 with our Top 10 discount card). We had a few beers that evening at a local pub and an excellent breakfast at “The Gables” the next morning.

The Northland part of the trip was taking longer than we had anticipated so we decided to press on with a marathon day of driving, managing to get all the way down through Auckland to Orere Point for the night of Friday 9th December.

Saturday saw us driving round the Firth of Thames, up the Coromandel Peninsular to Coromandel Town (which has the most expensive petrol we’d seen, NZ$1.54 per litre of standard). We had lunch in Coromandel and picked up some meat from the local butcher before setting out eastward across the peninsular to Whitianga. There we did some more refueling and stocking up on food and then drove down to Hahei, close to the famous Hot Water Beach.

We walked round the corner to check out what time we could pick up our van, only to find that the depot had just moved over the weekend and that we now had to go to Onehunga on the other side of Auckland to get the van. We caught a taxi there for about NZ$30 and arrived just after noon. There were two other couples there to pick up other vans and we recognised some of the vans from our South Island travels.

We were due to have a van called “Bruce Lee” but on inspection it didn’t have any opening windows in the back which would have made it very hot in the evenings, so Gerard swapped us to “Herpie” which is painted a bit like “Herbie”, the VW Beetle, and has “Beer Won’t Give You Herpies” sprayed on the back. Not as good a paint job as Darth but a slightly better van. (And yes, we know that herpes doesn’t have an ‘i’ in it, but the guy who painted the van didn’t!).

The van is an Toyota Townace automatic with power-steering. I’ve never driven an automatic before so Gerard gave me a quick run through and I soon picked it up. The power-steering makes the van much easier to handle too.

We didn’t get far that day, as we did some food shopping and then got caught in Auckland traffic, so we spent the night at Orewa.

The next day we headed back across country and northward through Waipoua Forest which is full of huge, ancient Kauri trees, and on to Opononi in Hokianga Harbour on the west coast of Northland. We stopped a few times on the way to take photos and admire the scenery. Hokianga Harbour was particularly lovely, with beaches and lovely hills around giving great views.

The Tranz-Scenic train to Auckland leaves at 7:25am so it was another early morning. It’s a long journey, scheduled to take about 12 hours, in our case it was an hour longer due to speed restrictions on the line. We passed through some great scenery, particularly in Tongariro National Park where we stopped for lunch.

Our friend, Neil, kindly met us at the station and took us for a much needed drink in St Heliers. It was great to catch up with him and his news and we’re hoping we’ll see him again before we leave NZ. He dropped us off at Aspen House, a hostel just around the corner from the address of the Wicked Campers depot in Auckland, where we spend the night.

We had a few days in Wellington and spend pretty much a whole day in the fascinating Te Papa museum, which is huge and wide-ranging, covering the European settlement of New Zealand, the Maoris, Pacific Islander culture, wildlife, geology (including an earthquake simulator). Too much to see in a day really.

We also took the cable-car up to the Botanical Gardens, but it was so windy up at the top that we had to come straight back down again.

We enjoyed a few beers at The Malthouse which has lots of “natural beers” on tap, as well as some bottled English Ales. We developed a taste for the Bookbinders beer as well as trying a few of the other varieties.

On the Saturday night before leaving, we booked a couple of deluxe seats at the Embassy Cinema and went to watch “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” which we both enjoyed, despite it being almost 3 hours long. The seats were great, all leather and very comfortable, with enough storage space for popcorn and drinks.

Just across the road from the cinema is a huge tripod sculpture, put there in November 2005 by Weta Workshops of Wellington, partly owned by Peter Jackson. The NZ premiere of King Kong was also to be held at the Embassy on December 14th.

Early start as the train leaves Christchurch at 7am, so we caught the free shuttle bus from the YMCA in Christchurch to the station at 6:10am. Check-in was all very smooth and we checked our luggage all the way through to Wellington.

The journey covered a lot of the same ground that we’d done in the van, at least the Kaikoura to Picton section, but it was nice to be able to gaze out of the window and spend a bit of time catching up with the blog. The train was delayed a little due to a mechanical failure and we made it to Picton with only minutes to spare before the ferry left. We hurried over and boarded the ferry, which was previously a cross-channel ferry known as “Pride of Cherbourg”.

The crossing was very smooth and the sun shone all the way to Wellington. We had some food and relaxed after the mad dash from train to ferry.

On arrival in Wellington we picked up our luggage and caught a shuttle bus to the Wellington City YHA. It’s a very nice hostel, well situated close to the Te Papa museum and a large New World supermarket, and just around the corner from the Embassy Cinema where “Return of the King” had its world premiere in 2003.

We’re currently in Wellington on the North Island of New Zealand, having caught a train and ferry up here from Christchurch a couple of days ago. I’ve posted a whole load of blog entries to catch up to where we are. You can read the first of the updates here if you want to do them in the right order.

I’ve also posted photos from Picton onwards , including some of whale-watching, Arthur’s Pass and Akaroa.