Heading 'Sarf

We are now South of Auckland and on the East coast in a place called The Bay of Plenty. We are camped up in a place called Tauranga, which is quite a busy little place (by NZ standards) There are lots of English style pubs, lots of Asian and Indian restaurants etc. The only downside is that its persisting down, it has been raining for almost 24 hours non-stop!

We arrived yesterday after leaving a place called Dargaville, it should be re-named Darkerville, it was a bit of a sleepy hollow and me and Matt stood out like sore thumbs. We would have just driven straight through it but we had been driving quite a bit that day and it was about to get dark. For anybody that knows Hull it was like camping on St Andrews Quay?!

We are here for another night before heading further South to a place called Rotorua, Matt has visited this place before so we know what to expect, it also has some thermal springs where we hope to bathe our trotters, in temperatures much higher than Bolivia!

NZ really is a beautiful country and totally different to what I was expecting, it is really hilly, there are hardly any cars on the roads at all and they have some stunning beaches that would easily compare to Thailand, unfortunately it's not that hot though!
NZ has a population of just over 4 million people and the whole country is apparently the equivalent size of England, Scotland and Wales. When you think in the UK there are approximately 6 million people living in London alone (I don't mean living alone) so it gives you an idea of how sparsely populated the place is?

We have been taking in lots of sights and beaches on our drive round and its great not to have to rely on public transport and tour companies to get us anywhere (exc our trip up the Cape) It is still very early in the season for campers in general so we can pick and choose where we stay and where we pitch (which makes me wonder how we ended up in Dargerville!!)

Nobody here understands a word I say, it was easier for me to converse with South Americans than it is with Kiwi's, it's obviously my Northern accent. We have met quite a few Northerners while we've been here, some from Nottingham, Oldham, and a guy who had actually emigrated here 30 years ago from Middlesborough, the woman who owned one of the campsites we stayed on was from Darlington, and the place were at now, the family travelled round the UK, down the East Coast through York and down into Bath.

Oooooh it's a small world!!