Tuesday 29th April 2008 The first job this morning was to drop off the car in town. They confirmed that I’d done 5,632km – not bad going in 28 days! I got the Airbus Express for free because it’s run by the same company that I hired the car from (Explore More). It took longer…

Monday 28th April 2008 After a phone call to Ady and breakfast I spent most of the morning clearing out the car and sorting out my bags. I then walked into the city centre and found a post office to send home the old Lonely Planet books that I no longer need to carry. I…

Sunday 27th April 2008 It was pretty overcast first thing, but after breakfast Rose from the hostel gave Mike from Gungha II a call. He confirmed that he would be sailing so I and a couple staying at the hostel booked on the day trip. We were supposed to be joined on the boat by…

Saturday 26th April 2008 After waking up to rain there was no chance of getting out for a sailing trip so I drove up to the Treaty Grounds at Waitangi. I spent a couple of hours looking around and reading all the information about James Busby and the signing of the treaty. Since the weather…

Friday 25th April 2008 I woke up early again and had packed up, checked out and was on the road just after nine. I kept going for two hours and stopped for a break just south of Auckland. I then ploughed on straight through the city stopping near Waipu to eat my lunch. I arrived…

Thursday 24th April 2008 I was up early again to get breakfast. Once the car was packed I headed off towards Taupo. Of course today it is completely clear and the views of Mount Tongariro were amazing. I stopped at a few viewpoints along the way, including a lookout down to Lake Taupo. I stopped…

Wednesday 23rd April 2008 We were up at half six for breakfast, which wasn’t really worth the money, but filled us up. Despite the weather looking mediochre we decided to go ahead with the walk and the guy from the hostel gave us a lift to the starting point at Mangetepopo. We headed off in…

Tuesday 22nd April 2008 I ended up in a single room last night, which made a welcome change. In the morning I spent a while chatting to Ady and Kate online before having breakfast. I walked down to the sea front just by the hostel before hitting the road. My first stop was in Wanganui…

I woke up to a hard frost this morning, but then that’s not surprising given that St Arnaud is in a skiing area. Once I’d packed up I drove up to the DOC visitor centre and did the peninsula walk around part of lake Rotoiti. The majority of the walk was through silver beech forests.…

I checked out of the hostel and went for a walk along the beach before heading over to the whale watch office. I got my ticket and went back out to sit on the beach until we got confirmation the tour was going ahead and to wait for the briefing at eleven. After a short…