Hello, my turn to write this extreme account of our New Zealand adventures, and this entry is pritty extra special. Rhys and Tara, the lovely couple who suggested we should head to Hawkes bay for a wine tasting day and stay in Clive caravan site, had invited us to National Park village, where they lived, to sample the many walks around Tongariro, Mt Ngauruhoe( Mt Doom) and Mt Ruapehu. Also to see many famous 'Lord Of The Rings' scenes that were filmed there. Af...

We had met the Harrison's (Chris, Jill, Britany and Angus) in November when they were kind enough to show us there winery, cook us dinner and have us to stay in the garden after we met Jill at the wine tasting. When we said our goodbyes to them then they mentioned to us that we could house sit for them when they went on holiday to Taupo at the end of January. At the time we were not sure what our plans were but as we were travelling around the South Island we rea...

Next stop Palmerston North! We contacted Cindy and Fronny who were the American girls that I gave a lift to when James did the Abel Tasman run. We pulled up to their house in the afternoon, said hi to Fronny and had a cup of tea. We went to the museum and art gallery in town which were really cool. When we got back to the house Cindy had come back from work at the University and they cooked us a really yummy dinner! We went for a walk round town after and had a ...

Once we got to Wellington we drove to the other side of the coast to find a freedom camping spot a French couple that we bumped in to a couple of times on the South Island told us about. It was a cool spot looking out onto the crashing waves. The next morning we woke up and had some COLD showers and just as we were about to head off . . . The same French couple pulled in!!! It was mad as we hadn't seen them since mid December! It was cool to catch up and then we ...

We traveled north up the coast and stopped at a nice DOC campsite right on the seafront and had a nice chilled evening recovering from our late nights at Kaikoura! The next day was a chilled slow start and then up the road to Blenhime, not the most stunning of towns but we had to do a food shop and get a few bits from town. We carried on up north and drove along some beautiful roads surrounded by golden hills and lush orchards and vineyards. We went to the coast...