Firstly, thanks Sarah's Dad, for teaching us it's never worth exchanging your money if you've only got a bit left, and instead you should spend it on lots of cheesecake at the airport - top life lesson! Secondly, the fact that forcing ourselves to stay awake for a 12 hour night flight so we could watch as many of the films as possible has been the most taxing part of the trip so far is a pretty good indication of how brilliant the first leg of our journey has been... Hiya New Zealand!!

We arrived in Auckland on a sunny Tuesday morning, and could finally celebrate - the language barrier had been lifted! This does, by the way, mean that other people can now overhear and understand your conversations - took us a while to readjust! The friendliness of the locals was immediately noticeable, and we had a whirlwind 24 hour tour of Auckland, starting with an amazing breakfast looking up at the Skytower, Auckland's most iconic building. We went to the Auckland museum and attempted to get our heads around some Maori history, before skipping down the road to rent our campervan, and soon to be new best friend! Our new set of wheels/ home for the next week was called Liberty, and she was beautiful! Yes, she had some interesting features, and made some equally interesting noises... Each of the five doors had to be locked individually and all turned different ways, making locking up somewhat of a performance, and never before have we come across a fuel guage which not only jumps down, but also back up again (several times a day), which made guessing the returning fuel level a difficult game to play! But she treated us well, and in this case it was definitely what was on the outside that counted!

The first day in the camper we headed North out of Auckland (after an exceptionally smooth departure from the forecourt) and it didn't take us long to realise that the English and Kiwi definitions of a motorway are not the same. We spent about half an hour on a fairly busy road, which did actually have three lanes, and the rest of the day cruising along a beautiful winding road pretending to be a motorway looking at beautiful green hills and lots of deer farms, passing another vehicle about once every 20 minutes. Today's campsite was our favourite, pulling up next to one other car at dusk on the shore of a beautiful beach and sand dunes, which only looked more amazing at the 6 o'clock sunrise. We were so lucky with the weather, having expected to walk into cold, wet and rainy New Zealand, we had lovely sun for our first few days.

Day two had more beautiful scenery to offer as we carried on up North towards the Bay of Islands. We stopped to visit the most photographed public toilets in the world (don't be too jealous!) and walked through the forest in Whangerei to see some of the world's tallest trees, the Kauri's, before arriving in Paihia, the gateway to the Bay of Islands. We felt it would be rude not to enjoy a drink watching the sun set over the bay, one of the very many romantic moments we have shared since the trip began!

The next day we joined Tom, a charming guy in his 60's, for a day's sailing around the bay, although our introduction was slightly less charming, getting picked up in a little dingy, and catching some 'uncharacteristic' waves on the way to the boat, soaking both us and our possessions. 'Must be expecting a storm, never seen waves like this before'... Excellent news Tom, truly excellent. Luckily the weather held out for the morning, and we got to enjoy the stunning islands (apparently there are 134, though Tom is dubious and believes the figure to be more like 34!) With only three of us on the boat we had a really personal experience, and Tom's passion for the area, the sea and sailing, was infectious. With no prior sailing experience he decided to build himself a boat... 7 years later it was sea worthy, so he learnt to sail! Having said that, he has now been sailing for about 30 years, so we felt in safe hands when the forecast storm came rolling in in the afternoon. We got absolutely drenched, and at times you couldn't see the land, but it almost made the views more impressive. Nothing like blankets of mist, some stories about Captain Cook's discovery of the islands, the existence of modern day pirates, and a Maori boy being hung for crimes he potentially didn't commit, for adding a bit of atmosphere to the trip!

On day four New Zealand showed us that it really knows how to rain! Luckily we had planned a driving day anyway, making our way South East across to the Coromandel. The coastal road we took towards the end of the day really was stunning. Neither of us could think of a time or place we'd spent so long driving so near to the sea!

The next day we were up at the crack of dawn to drive across the peninsula to the Hot Water Beach, a Mekka for campervans. If you toddled down to the beach with your spade two hours either side of high tide, you could dig a little hole and reach water as hot as 65 degrees, all due to the thermal activity of the volcanic rocks below the sand - crazy! In the afternoon we walked down to Cathedral Cove - blue sea, white sand, and tip top lunch spot!

Day six took us to Matamata, a town dedicated solely to Lord of the Rings. Sarah went to visit Hobbiton, and ran around taking photos like an excitable small child. Unbelievably a third of people who come here have never read the books or seen the films - crackers! You know Mr Jackson had an exceptional budget for the films when he paid one lady to spend two weeks walking up and down the same 10 metre stretch of grass from a gate to a washing line to make it look lived in, and another to pull 15 hour days in the week or so leading up to filming to hand paint all the leaves on a tree the correct shade of green!

From here we drove down to Rotorua, New Zealand's centre for Maori culture, and famous for its geothermal activity. It was pretty strange to see steam billowing out of the drains, and bubbling mud and geysers dotted around the local park. Although the smell of rotten eggs was indeed memorable our Rotorua highlight was undoubtedly the Maori experience evening. We watched a cultural performance - singing, dancing, fighting and the Haka - featuring some pretty attractive men wearing some pretty tiny outfits, and eat a Hangi meal (food cooked in the ground by the heat from thermal rocks) which was ridiculously yummy! The fact we both couldn't sleep for indigestion is a pretty good sign of how much we ate/ how intolerant our penny-pinching travellers stomachs have become to meat!

We would have loved another day in Rotorua, if only to go to the thermal pools and mud spa, although what most people don't realise is that you get precisely the same experience if you buy a 4 dollar mud face mask from the souvenir shop and sit yourself in the campsite hot tub with a box of wine - we had cucumber and everything! We left Rotorua in the afternoon and headed south for a scenic drive around lake Taupo, the biggest lake in New Zealand, which was stunning.

On our last full day we dashed from Taupo across to Waitomo, where Jess donned a wetsuit, climbed into a pitch black cave, then crawled and climbed through the rock formations, before jumping into some waterfalls, and tubing and rafting the rest of the way on an underwater river (black water rafting) with the only light coming from the thousands of glow worms, which looked like tiny pinhole stars, quite magical. Little factoid for you - it is actually the glow worm's poo which glows, and these little maggots having a taxing lifecycle, in which they spend 50% of their time eating, and the other half having sex!

We were sad to return Liberty the next day, although the torrential rain had returned so we didn't feel too bad to be swapping camping for a comfy bed! And as an added bonus we are now word perfect with Bruno Mars, James Arthur and Taylor Swift, as for the whole 9 days we could only tune into one radio station - cheers Kiwi FM for your select taste in British music.

We flew from Auckland to Wellington for a two day tour of the capital, and it was nice to be met by a friendly face in Jess's friend Rich, who put a proper carpet under our feet and let us remember what it feels like to be in a car! We spent a great morning watching mtv and binging on free wifi, experienced a Wellington constitution in the form of a grilled fish sandwhich, and found out why Windy Welly got it's name, getting nearly blown off the top of a lookout point, all worth it for the views though! We liked it here, and it was nice to get the local's perspective, although it was so much smaller than we expected. Having said that, that's been the story with every place we've visited, and we're finally starting to see how a country this size has a population smaller than that of London!

So all in all, our first few weeks in New Zealand have been pretty fantastic! After hearing time and time again that the South Island is superior, the North Island has far exceeded our expectations, and we've both loved it here... Next stop Christchurch and our South Island adventures, let's hope they're as impressive!

Lots of love, you strangers drop us a line and let us know what you've been up to! Xxx