Woke up this morning in our own bed, and don’t quite know what to do with ourselves. We’ve had a simple routine for the past 13 days: get up, pack up, get on the road. Now there’s all these choices of things to do. Well, it’s not that hard to decide: there’s a pile of … More Day 14: Reflections
And so we are home. We thought we’d be one more night on the road, but L got the call up for a bowls competition tomorrow, so we thought we’d do the trip from New Plymouth to Wellington in a day. But before we left, we took Chaddie’s one-hour tour of the New Plymouth harbour … More Day 13: New Plymouth to Wellington
We’ve made it to the west coast, to New Plymouth, which has a good vibe. The Forgotten World Highway, the route for today’s travel, is a stunner. There are parts where you truly feel you are driving through a forgotten world. Most of the road is sealed, except for the shingle bit in the middle, … More Day 12: Taumarunui to New Plymouth
Today we took the 32km, 3.5 hour rail cart journey along the disused branch railway from Okahukura to Matiere and return. Come along for the journey. The whole journey in the self-drive carts was fantastic. There were about 7 carts plus a lead cart with our guide Jessie and a tail-end charley with staffer Ryan. … More Day 11: Five tunnel tour
Today we drove from the east coast across to Taumaranui, not quite to the west coast yet, but getting there. We started the day on SH 2, on to SH 30 to Rotorua, SH 5 to Wairakei, across the top of Lake Taupo on a secondary road to SH 32 which took us down the … More Day 10: Opotiki to Taumarunui
Not a lot to report as it was basically an R&R day. We started the day in Opotiki with a couple of coffees, both good, the first at a café in the main street, the second from a small coffee cart that a couple of Australians put us on to. We met them, the Aussies, … More Day 9: Day trip to Whakatane
The day started with a detour from Te Araroa to East Cape so we could walk the 800 steps up to the lighthouse, which we did. It got the heart rate pumping somewhat, but with lots of stops to take in the view (even when there wasn’t one), we both managed. And it was worth … More Day 8: Te Araroa to Opotiki
Actually, it was Tatapouri to Te Araroa today, with a detour back to Gisborne to fill up with petrol. So Tatapouri was where we glamped last night, listening to the sea and the wind as we fell asleep. It was great. But noisy, what with the sea and wind. At times it sounded as though … More Day 7: Gisborne to Te Araroa
Off Highway One 