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Our flight took off on the 27th October and was a 11 hour flight but due to time difference we landed on the 29th October and it went very quickly as we slept most of it.
We had to hang around the airport waiting for the campervan hire company to open and pick us up and once they did we were on the road in our juicy camper van with 'el cheapo' splashed all over it to highlight it was the cheapest one possible lol! But it has a massive bed, a microwave, cooker, fridge and a sink so it was perfect for what we needed! Because we wanted to get sorted we went to a local campsite in Manukau, Auckland to unpack our clothes and get a good nights sleep.
Our first day of driving we drove to a place called Whangarei falls to see the famous waterfall and then we drove to Rawhiti up in the Bay of Islands which was a lovely remote village right on the beach and the only access was a long dirt track road. We stopped here for lunch and then hit the road again to Russell and stopped here for the night.
The next day we had to be up early as we had booked to swim with the dolphins and we jumped in our van and headed for the fishing port where our boat would pick us up HOWEVER on our way the GPS told us to take a right down what looked like a very steep hill, I said to Luke 'Don't go down there you won't make it' in which Luke replied 'yes I will don't be silly' and down the hill we went and when he applied the brakes we still were going down the hill! He then yanked the handbrake on and it just about held. The hill was a dead end leading to someones back garden so we decided to open the gates of the garden and see if we can drive in and turn round in order to attempt to drive back up the hill. But as we drove in the garden the grass was wet and was also steep so we nearly drove into the peoples house so again applied the handbrake and it just held but there was no way of moving because as soon as you let go of the handbrake we were going into there fence and house! First of all we called the AA for help and they sent us out a mechanic who said ' I can't help you mate there is no way I'm driving down this hill ' so he called a tow truck who had to get a ferry over to Russell and he ended up towing us out at a cost of NZ$420! We also ended up missing our trip out with the dolphins but managed to re book this for the next day. We then got fish and chips and sat on the beach laughing. The mechanic also kindly offered us his drive to park up on for the night and his wife cooked us a lovely dinner that evening and we were also talk of the town apparently lol.
The next day we got on our boat to see the dolphins and left our van on the mechanics drive for the day. The sea was extremely choppy and rough which didn't make it a comfy ride but then we arrived at the dolphins and there were around 20 dolphins jumping out of the water but as they had their babies with them we were not allowed in with them which was disappointing but still got a good view of them. We then got the boat to drop us off in Paihia where we got tuk tuk to the Waitangi Treaty House and we watched a Mauri performance and Luke got to do the Haka! We then got the ferry back to collect our van and hit the road back down to Whangarei to try and find The Lion Man but it was shut so the rumours were true and we couldn't go in so we camped up for the night.
The next day we drove down to Rotorua and went for a walk through The Redwood Trees to see Hamurana Springs were 1 million gallons of water flow out the ground every minute. The next day we went to Kerosene Creek a natural hot spring which was lovely and we both went in for a dip this was on the way to Lake Taupo and we also went to have a look at a boiling mud pool in Waiotapu. We stopped off at Huka Falls which is a narrow canyon with a 11 metre drop that has a volume of water flow of 220,000 litres per second!! We also popped into a Volcanic Centre which was very interesting. That evening we stayed in Lake Taupo for the night.
We then drove to Napier which suffered from a earthquake in the 1930's and was consequently re built in a art deco style. It was very hot so we stopped off at the beach and made some lunch. We then got back on the road and went to Dannevirke which is a small town made up off Danish settlers and it also had the oldest cinema in New Zealand so we spent the evening in here watching The Expendables and we were the only two people in the cinema.
The next day we drove to Wellington to stay with my granddad's cousin. He took us on a guided tour through Wellington and he also took us up to Mount Victoria a scenic look out over the city. He then dropped us off at the Cable Car and said I will pick u up from the top and as we approached the entrance it said Cable Car Closed but luckily enough he realised when he reached the top and he came back to get us. That afternoon we spent in his bar playing pool and Derek cooked us a gorgeous dinner! We then went into the city to watch the fireworks over the bay and went to a few bars before getting the bus home to bed.
The next day we visited Dereks family and he cooked us another lovely meal and we arranged the ferry crossing for the next day. We got the early crossing to the South Island and this took around 4 hours but the sights on the way were beautiful.
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