Another well-overdue blog...at least I'm actually writing it! Sailing across the Cook Strait was interesting - grey and miserable (still) on the North island side (it had actually been a nice day the day before), then getting to the sun in the Marlborough Sounds, which was a nice little trip on its own. A new bus today - one of the small ones, so there's only about 15 of us this time. It was a whistle-stop tour on the way to Abel Tasman, starting with an extrem...

Right, I know it's been a while... Anyhow, Tongariro - it seems like we got one of the best days possible to be there; apparently they'd had about five weeks of rain and gale force winds... By the time we got there (having left rainy grey Taupo at 6am) and had driven up through the cloud layer, it was perfect blue sky I didn't fancy doing the Tongariro crossing myself, especially as the first 1-2 hours is the hardest (all uphill on volcanic rock - nice...), so ...

Tuesday 12th October Proper travelling now - the bus has been almost full all the way round North Island (40+ people). Started off at the Coromandel Peninsula - first stop was Hot Water Beach on the way to our overnight at Hahei. It was sunny enough - just blowing a gale up from Antarctica, so we were stood shivering on the beach in layers of coats. The water was surprisingly hot - too hot in places to stand in for much longer than it took to take a photo. Some ...

Started my travels proper today - got picked up at stupid o' clock in the morning by the mini Stray bus and our driver, Gollum... He was good enough to stop off at random places to show us things like a funky treehouse...and pink sheep... He even managed to keep a straight face while telling us in all seriousness that they were pink because they were strawberry and raspberry flavour ;D We also stopped off in Kawakawa on the way up to see the Hundertwasser toile...

Only a quick blog at the mo before I run out of time on the computer! Been here for a few days - weather's been fantastic, everyone's really friendly and laid back etc etc...any more cliches you want to throw in there? Went over to Rangitoto Island in Auckland Harbour - a dormant volcano that didn't exist until 600 years ago. It's now a nature reserve with several walks of varying degrees of difficulty/laziness - the main path up to the summit is a bit on the l...