Our final blog from New Zealand....It has been a wonderful six weeks here.

After the last update from Taupo, we drove to Rotorua, home to geysers, hot springs, 'the gates of hell' and lots of Maori culture accessible to tourists. We finally got to see actual, live kiwis (although we had to go to a special reserve to do it as they are so shy in the wild) and experience some of NZ's best mountain biking in the redwood forests just out of town.

Then after a night in Auckland to say goodbye to Mel, who has been brave enough to let us crash at her place every time we pass through, we headed north to Russell in the Bay of Islands.

Once known as 'the hell hole of the Pacific' (!) it's now really beautiful up there - turquoise bays, hidden beaches, and lots of islands to explore. We stayed with my aunt and uncle in a lovely bach (Kiwi for holiday home, pronounced batch) overlooking the sea, with views the bay where Captain Cook first took shelter in the 1700s. It was great to see some familiar faces and we were throroughly spoiled; it was a real luxury to have actual beds, chairs, wine glasses, etc after weeks in our orange campervan.

The second day we got to explore the bay even more, with a day out on Cool Change, a unique catarmaran with twin masts that swivel round in response to the wind, built entirely by its owners from scratch with so many neat touches that easily made it the coolest boat on the water... and therefore made us the coolest sailors that day.

If only the final few days could have been as relaxing... but after that it quickly descended into a chaotic rush as we realised not only that we were flying out a day early than we thought and needed to dash quickly back to Auckland rather than spending the afternoon on the beach, but also, with four hours to go before the flight, that we had completely forgotten to get visas for Australia!

Luckily it could all be sorted out quickly online but you can imagine how relieved we were to be let through customs in our next stop, Sydney....

Laura