Saturday 30^th September – Day 1

I struggled to sleep last night due to a mixture of excitement and sadness.  The day had finally arrived for our trip to New Zealand but I was also going to miss Claire, who wasn’t able to go with me and Sean.

The alarm went off at 06:30 but I was already awake.  With all our final checks completed we were ready to go.  I said farewell to Claire and made my way to the train station trying not to think about how much I was going to miss her over the next month.

Our train arrived in Liverpool about an hour before our bus was due to leave so we went for a coffee to pass the time.  Before we knew it it was time to go to the Megabus stop.  The Megabus website was giving conflicting advice as to where their bus stop actually was!  I had a gut feeling that I knew where it was and so we waited there anxiously for the bus to come.  The departure time came and went leaving us beginning to feel a bit twitchy.  Fortunately, ten minutes late, our Megabus appeared around the corner.  We were at the right stop!

The six hour journey passed by quite well, apart from some roadworks by Luton airport and had arrived at Victoria station.  After a quick bite to eat we headed for the tube to Heathrow, which would undoubtedly be a rather testing ordeal.  Indeed it was due to incredibly packed trains all the way to the airport and our enormous luggage getting in everyone’s way!

Having arrived at Heathrow Terminal 3 we checked in whilst chatting to a very pleasant Korean man who had been to the UK on a business trip.

Our time in departures passed by quickly and uneventfully, with the exception of bumping into Shane McGowan.  Before long it was time to board our flight at 21:30.  We noticed that we were two of about five ‘Westerners’ on the flight, every other passenger was Korean.  Even the flight instructions were in Korean!  This was going to be a very interesting flight…

Sunday 1^st October – Day 2

Sadly it proved to be another ‘sleepless night on the move’ for me.  Despite the luxurious leg room and the fantastic meal provided I could not fall asleep.  What didn’t help either was a rather large woman snoring incredibly loudly nearby.  I ended up watching a Korean film hoping that it would put me to sleep – it didn’t.

Just as I was about to drop off the cabin lights came back on and breakfast was served…such is life!  Sean and I were treated to a rather unusual green tea rice porridge for breakfast.  The flavour was hard to describe but if the opportunity to have it again came up we’d take it!

On our descent into Incheon I had some sinus problems but apart from that I was feeling fine.

With South Korea being 8 hours ahead of the UK it was already 16:30.  We only had a few hours in Incheon airport before our next flight.

We spent our time reading and trekking round the airport.  I was getting into the ‘Bourne Trilogy’ by Robert Ludlum and Sean was more than happy admiring the Korean women and watching crazy gameshows on TV.  The time passed quickly enough and before we knew it it was time to board our next flight at 20:35.  Hopefully I will get to sleep tonight!

Monday 2^nd October – Day 3

Yet another sleepless night!  I spent the whole night awake, reading and watching the film ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ with its Korean subtitles.  I did enjoy Bibimbap for tea, which is a very interesting Korean curry.  The mushroom rice porridge for breakfast was interesting too!

Feeling somewhat jaded we made our way through immigration and jumped on the ‘Maui’ bus to collect our campervan.  Once at Backpackers the heavens opened and we were treated to an amazing thunder storm the like of which I have never seen before.

Backpackers seemed busy and it was two hours before we were ready to pull our campervan out of the forecourt and really begin our trip.

We called in at a supermarket near Auckland airport to collect provisions for the trip.  We actually met some of the people we waited with at Backpackers, who obviously had the same ideas as us.  Rumours had started to spread that New Zealand was being caught up in the end of a mini tornado, which would certainly explain the weather!

We left Auckland and headed for Coromandel Forest to take in the views of the National Park.  With the torrential rain and Sean struggling with the poor maps we had been given it took three hours to complete the journey.  Having said that the views were incredible.  We went out exploring, made some sandwiches for tea and went to bed at 21:30 – we were exhausted after all the travelling!

Tuesday 3^rd October – Day 4

I had a fantastic night’s sleep with actually being able to use something approaching a bed!  I woke up at about 07:00 feeling great.

After a couple of hours of getting ready with cold showers (haven’t figured out how to get hot water yet!), breakfast and enjoyed our surroundings it was time to move on to Rotorua.

We felt it would be a good idea to go via Whatananga to see the Pacific coast.  We stopped at the Whatananga iSite (tourist information site) and explored the town and beach.  What a great wee place!  The relaxed atmosphere of the town was very much accentuated by the beach and its views.

Back on the road we pressed on to Rotorua and booked ourselves into a campsite and went out to explore the town.  We had lunch in a takeaway with the freshest fish I’ve ever had and sprinted across the town centre to avoid another heavy downpour.

We decided that we were going to mountain bike and zorb tomorrow so we went on a drive to find where they were based in preparation.  On the way back to the campsite we visited the incredible thermal springs which are all over Rotorua.  This is a very interesting town.

Back at the campsite Sean and I spent the evening kayaking in the nearby lake and enjoying a barbeque with an interesting group of Australian travellers.  We decided with tomorrow going to be a rather full day we would go to bed early and had turned in by 21:30.

Wednesday 4^th October – Day 5

I woke up at 03:00 as the light started coming up over Rotorua Lake.  What a sight!  I quickly dozed off though and woke up again at 07:00

We used the campsite showers and had breakfast before heading into Rotorua at about 09:00.  Sean bought himself a watch and we hired mountain bikes from the world’s friendliest bike shop.  We decided that with Rotorua being the home of mountain biking we should give it a try in the nearby mountain range,  which had special developed bike tracks.  We spent the next three hours tearing up and down the bike tracks and enjoying our surroundings.  By the time we had finished we were exhausted and filthy but it was worth it!

After biking we thought a spot of zorbing would be called for.  We arrived at the zorbing centre and booked ourselves in on a dual ‘hydro-zorb’.  We kept our filthy biking gear on and let the water filled zorb clean us!  The ride was fantastic and Sean bought a CD with pictures of our ride on it.  Definitely worth trying!

After a quick change of clothing we stocked up on provisions at a supermarket in Rotorua.  Our next destination would be Gisborne 300kms away.  The journey didn’t go exactly to plan.  The weather and scenery were awesome and we were enjoying the journey.  However, as the trip went on we went 100kms without seeing a petrol station and were running out of fuel.  We eventually arrived at Manatai at 21:00 to find their petrol station closed – so we slept in their forecourt!

Thursday 5^th October – Day 6

Sean and I woke up freezing cold at about 06:30.  Manatai was a very desolate, and cold, place in the daylight.  No matter how long we left the water heater on for the bitter cold outside wouldn’t allow us to have a hot shower!

After breakfast, and having decided not to shower, we filled the van up with diesel.  By my estimations we had 6kms of fuel left when we limped into the petrol station last night.

We set out to do the last 70kms to Gisborne.  After an hour or so we arrived to find the weather had put an end to our plans for surfing lessons.  It was disappointing but we will surf later on in this trip.

We spent many hours walking round Gisborne looking at the sights.  The Cook and Young Nick statues were well worth seeing.  We went into an Internet café to email home and organise our ferry crossing to Picton – scheduled for Monday.

We left Gisborne and pressed on to Napier and Hastings.  Although we made flying visits to both cities we did gain an appreciation of what they were about.  It made sense to keep pressing on though as we had a lot of ground still to cover.

After a quick stop for some supplies just outside Hastings we headed south again.  We eventually stopped halfway between Norsewood and Dannevirke (e.g. in the middle o nowhere!) at 20:00 with the light staring to fail.  After 450kms behind the wheel I thought it only fair to let Sean cook our tea!  The plan tomorrow is to visit Palmerston North and then head for Wellington.

Friday 6^th October – Day 7

What a cold night!  Sean and I woke up to find ice on the inside of the van.  What didn’t help was that it was so cold the heater wasn’t able to provide us with hot showers for the second day running.

After breakfast we moved on to Palmerston North via Dannevirke.  The weather was brightening up nicely and we thoroughly enjoyed the views as we headed towards Wellington.  Sadly along the way we collected a huge stone chip, which left a crack in our windscreen that spread right the way across it.  We’ll need to sort that out before the van gets handed back in Auckland.

Just as lunchtime was approaching Sean and I entered the outskirts of Wellington.  What a view!  We parked up in Wellington, which was no mean feat as it is not a car friendly city.  We had lunch in town and decided to find a campsite for our three night stay in Wellington.

Interestingly the nearest campsite was 13kms in Lower Hutt.  Fortunately the campsite had good bus connections into Wellington.  Having covered so much ground in the last couple of days we thought we’d go back into town for tea.

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