Apologies for the delay in the update. I have not had decent enough internet to update it properly, so thought I’d wait until I could, and now I can, thanks to the free internet that I’m getting in the hostel in Auckland!

I left Taupo and continued up to Rotorua, stopping off at Wai-O-Tomo geothermal park to see more evidence of the heat and energy that lies beneath the ground in the region. Like ‘Craters of the Moon’, there were small bursts of steam emanating from various parts of the ground, however here there was more than just craters, but pools of water, and lakes with the water dyed various colours, depending on the element that was in the soil around it, with the walk around the park culminating in a view of a small pond who’s water was coloured the brightest green. Once again, the whole park had the smell of sulphur, which made the whole experience a little less pleasant!

Rotorua was different from all the other big towns and cities I’ve visited, it is a lot smaller, and most importantly, there was somewhere to park the car! Again it was by the side of a lake and the odd whiff of sulphur spread across the town every now and again. Much of what the town had to offer was based in Government Gardens, including an odd museum set in an old Bath House, part of which was dedicated an exhibition which showed how the old baths were used for healing, and paying homage to the Royal Mineral Water Hospital in Bath, from where, apparently, they got the idea.

Initially I had planned to head south-east down to Napier and then up the coast to Gisborne, but after some suggestions from other people I decided not to bother, and instead drove up to Whakatane, at the eastern end of the Bay of Plenty. From here it was a short drive to Ohope, where the beach was long, sandy and deserted. The next morning I had booked myself on a whale and dolphin watching boat trip out into the Bay, around Whale Island. I wisely decided to buy some sea-sickness tablets ahead of the trip, which turned out to be a good idea, as the moment we left the calm of the harbour the sea became very choppy, so much so that the people who had booked to swim with the dolphins were unable to do so when we finally managed to find the creatures out in the Bay. The dolphins swam around and under the boat for about 10 minutes, before we lost them again, prompting another hour long search for them but to no avail. By this time, however, the pills I had taken had either worn off, or simply not been strong enough to deal with the conditions, prompting me to be quite ill, narrowly avoiding a small Norwegian boy...

When the side-effects of the pills had worn off I drove 90 minutes along the Bay to Mount Maunganui, a small town a few kilometres away from Tauranga. I hadn’t initially planned on visiting the place, but decided to after it was recommended to me by someone in Nelson, and I’m glad I did, for it is the best place I’ve visited so far. Set on a mini peninsula it was surrounded by a harbour to the west, and the Pacific Ocean to the east. At the very end of the peninsula was ‘The Mount’, which I climbed, giving spectacular views down the golden beach and the Bay of Plenty to one side, and Tauranga and the Coromandel to the other. The place is a haven to surfers in New Zealand, with an artificial reef on the sea bed causing good waves along the main beach. The town had a laid-back atmosphere, with no-one in much of a hurry to do anything...my kind of place!

Two days later I reluctantly set off westwards, towards Thames on the south-west corner of the Coromandel peninsula. Someone had told me that the hostel there was good, which to be fair it was, but there seemed to be a lack of anything to actually do there unless you are into mining, rocks or birdwatching. Drawing blanks on my ability to conjure up any kind of enthusiasm to interest myself in any of those things, I decided that I would use it as a rest day, although the presence of 4 different people snoring in the dorm put paid to that idea, resulting in a sleepless night.

I had accidentally booked myself into the wrong hostel for the next night, meaning to book it for the following night, but I couldn’t be bothered to actually change it, so I was left with a 4 hour drive to the Northlands, through a busy Auckland, up to Whangerei, on the east coast. The hostel was excellent, if a little remote and with an outrageously long and steep driveway. Not wanting to faff around finding somewhere to park in the city centre, I instead decided to head for the Whangerei Falls, reputedly the most photographed waterfall in New Zealand. My sat-nav lured me into a carpark and told me to continue 3km through what was quite clearly a forest...I decided to walk. A man in a fluorescent jacket told me he was there to make sure no-one broke into the cars and that the waterfall was a 15 minute walk through the forest. When I reached it I could not quite work out what was so photogenic about it, for it appeared to be just a trickle of water down an overgrown rockface. I photographed it anyway. It was only when I returned to the hostel that I was told that I’d gone to the wrong one.