Firstly before I start the New Zealand pages, I wanted to just mention the mileage we have done in America and Canada. Total miliage for the 6 months was 22'000 miles both in the camper and cars. We toured 10 American states, these were California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Arizona and Nevada. We also toured 4 Canadian states, British Columbia, Alberta, The Yukon and Manitoba. In the 6 months we only had 2 days of rain and really enjoyed our time over there. We recommend Alaska for an experience of a lifetime, but saying this all the states both in Canada and America have something different and worthwhile to visit.

New Zealand

North island

We left Rarotonga on the 16th November and flew into Auckland, it was less than a 4 hr flight and was again an excellent flight with Air New Zealand. We arrived late evening so just stayed in an airport hotel. The next day we rented a car (which was rather embarrasing as it was the same colour as this text) at least we could always find it in a carpark though. We headed south towards the centre of the north island staying in places along the way. Our first impressions of New Zealand is that it is very much like England when driving through the countryside. We were quite surprised to find that it was not as laid back as everyone had been telling us it would be, all I can think is that because we have travelled in some remote areas in America and Canada and they are very laid back. The North island is very volcanic and New Zealnd is a young country balanced on top of two ever moving sections of the earths crust. These are the Pacific and Indo Australian plates.  We found that as we were driving through the countryside especially nearer the middle of the island around Lake Taupo that you could see evidence of thermal areas all around. There was steam even coming out of the mountain sides and lots of areas that you could go to and swim or take a mud bath and lots of spas and thermal pools. We visited an area called Craters of the moon near Lake Taupo. This was a walk around an area that had mud pools, steaming areas and water geysers. You had to walk around this on a platform as the ground was so hot. We stayed at Lake Taupo opposite the Lake. This lake is the biggest freshwater lake in Australasia with 616 km  of water, its used for swimming, kayaking, sailing.  The locals all use this at weekends. The sand around the edge is black volcanic sand.

We started to make our way up towards the north and went to a town called Rotorua and visited a Caterpillar museum, this was a look at New Zealands pioneering histroy and has on show over 30 refurbished Caterpillar and other vintage vehicles. Brian really enjoyed this, and Carl got in a few pictures. We decided as this museum had shown how all the logging was done with these machines, that we needed to see the areas. We headed to Pureora Forest Park to look for the 1000 year old Podocarp forest. The Podocarp tree grows between 40 and 60 metres tall and is now protected from felling. The forest is strange and has a damp feeling and remains  like this due to the moisture and humidity amongst the trees.  We left this area and toured around and eventually made our way up to the Coromandel, this area has remote coastline, clear water , with little bays and beaches all along. The drive right around the peninsular was very scenic They have certain beaches that are okay for swimming but alot of others have dangerous rip tides. There are some good areas for snorkling though.  We have also found in New Zealand that they like their cafes, and in every town or garage there is usually a cafe selling hot pies and sauage rolls. Emilia was very happy to find sauasage rolls again, we have all been indulging in the pies etc as most things are like home. They even sell Marmite in the supermarket.

We made our way back to Auckland and left on a flight to Nelson on the South island. We spent just over two weeks on the North island.

South Island

We flew into Nelson on the South island on the 3rd December and where collected at the airport by friends who used to live in Claypole and had emigrated to NZ three years ago. They are Graham, Julie, Stuart, Rebecca and Michael Cox. Michael is the same age as Emilia and used to go to school with her in Claypole. We went to their house in Mapua and had a bbq and after staying the night we headed off to explore the South Island as Julie and Graham had very kindly lent us a car. We headed East and drove through the Queen Charlotte Sounds and headed down following the coastal road and stayed the night at Kaikoura. This town is right on the coast and is a good place to view marine life if its the right time of year. We continued along the coast which runs along side the Pacific Ocean and stayed in small towns along the way. We went to see the Moeraki boulders along the way. We walked down onto the beach to see them, they are unusually large and spherical and they lie along a stretch of beach on the Otago coast. They are either isolated or in clusters and are made up of mud, fine silt and clay cemented together with calcite. They can be between 3ft and 6ft in diameter. We travelled along the scenic routes and headed towards the south of the south island, stopping along the way to walk to waterfalls, we found a village off the beaten track and came across a deserted beach at Papatowai, we passed through some lovely bays and headed to the southern edge and Invercargill. This is a large town at the bottom of the island and has a strong scottish influence, you can tell by the difference in the kiwi accent. We enjoyed Invercargill and one of the highlights for Brian was seeing the original world's fastest Indian, the motorbike was the original one owned and rode by Burt Munro. There was a film by the same name about his land speed records. (for the full info please go to Emilia's webpage, as she was very iinterested in this). We started to make our way back up this time following the west coast and the Tasman sea, this side was alot rougher. We stayed in Queenstown, which was a lovely busy town, Emilia and Brian saw a Kiwi bird here, and there was a beautiful lake called Lake Wakatipu that bordered the town. We saw other lovely lakes and waterfalls as we made our way back up to Mapua and our friends at the top of the south island.

We had christmas with the Cox family and it was very different with it being so warm, we had a nice lazy christmas day after a lovely dinner cooked by Julie. Then on Boxing day we went to the beach in Abel Tasman national park. Emilia and Michael went swimming. Graham and Julie took us to some lovely places, Emilia had a go at Salmon fishing and caught 2, so did Michael. These were then smoked for you on site and then we went to Pohara beach and had a picnic of salmon, it tasted lovely. (Emilia wouldn't eat any though as she had seen its eyes). We also all went to Hanmer hot springs for a couple of days, these are thernal pools of different temperatures.

After spending 6 weeks on the South island we said our goodbyes and flew to Auckland on the 8th January and got ready to fly out to Tasmania on the 9th and the next stage of our trip.