On the day we collected Maverick, our spaceship, it was very grey, cold and wet. Anyone who knows me knows I’m not the best when it comes to camping. I get cold in Egypt, so how will I ever manage living out of a car? Anyway, despite my little niggly worries, we were both excited. We have loved the times when we’ve had our own transportation and now we were going to have a car for 6 weeks!!!! YAY!!

The company paid for us to get a taxi to collect Maverick (he will be referred to his name from now on), we had a briefing on how everything worked and then we were free to go. So, what is a spaceship? A spaceship is a type of camper car. So what is a camper car? It is a long car that has been modified in the back so that you have a double mattress, fridge, camping stoves and storage compartments. We went crazy and also rented a power cable so we could charge our electrical items at powered campsites and a summer pack (chairs, table, cooler box and solar shower). Unfortunately they had run out of tables so we got refunded the cost of the table and will be buying our own as soon as possible. All in all, we were pretty impressed with the size of Maverick when we collected him and so far he’s been a very smooth and reliable ride!

As we left Auckland we decided to go up to Mount Eden to get some views back to Auckland. Auckland is a city surrounded by extinct volcanoes and Mount Eden is one of them. However, when we arrived at the carpark, the weather turned even worse for us. The spectacular views we were promised didn’t really happen and we were soaking wet by the time we made it back to the car. My worst camping fears were coming true… everything being damp and gross. We had planned to go to a local beach called Piha for lunch, but decided the weather was too bad so we started our journey up towards Paihia in the North. We would be using Paihia as a base for the next 3 days so that we could explore the Bay of Islands and Cape Regina.

Not long after we left Auckland we saw a Pac n’ Save. I’d heard that these were the Aldi’s of New Zealand so we went shopping and stocked the camper with nearly a weeks worth of food!! Bargain! When putting all of the food back into the camper somehow I dropped the keys down the side of the fridge, an area not easily accessible. Simon had to go and by a screwdriver so we could get the keys back and get on the road again. Whoops! Thank you Simon. You were a hero!!!

We stopped in the next town, which was called Orewa and had some lunch. We whipped out the camping stove, made a cuppa and enjoyed our sandwiches whilst looking out over the beach. Maybe this camping thing won’t be so bad? I think the best of the weather was coming to an end now and we decided to just plow on with our 250km. The maximum speed limit in New Zealand is 100km so it’s not too fast to travel anywhere really, but we made it to our campsite by about 6.30pm. The whole drive was beautiful, at times reminding us of Norway and at other times reminding us of Wales and Scotland. The North Island is the less ‘pretty’ island apparently. Jeez, we will definitely be spoilt by the end.

Once we got to our campsite we had the fun of trying to put up an awning and turning the back area into a bedroom. We managed quite successfully and used the camp kitchen to make some dinner. 4 guys who were working over here from India gave us some left over sausages that they had BBQ’d and invited us to join them for a chat. They were very lovely people and told us that their culture was to share everything. They kept offering lamb steaks, beer and rum. We offered them some coca cola and cookies. I have to admit, at first I was skeptical as it’s not common to do that in British culture, but they genuinely were being nice and we had a lovely chat with them about New Zealand, India and Britain. We headed off to bed as we had quite an early start for our first tour of NZ the next day.

We woke up nice and early to head to the for the wharf for our ferry tour. We were going to be visiting the Bay of Islands and the Hole in the Rock, with the hope that we may see some marine mammals on the way. We had heard that the swells yesterday were up to 1.5m and the guests didn’t have a fun trip, not even making it to see the Hole in the Rock. I took some seasickness tablets and hoped! Before the boat departed we had a little bit of time to walk around Paihia, which is a very pretty little coastal town. I learnt that the name comes from someone saying the town was ‘Fine here’. Maori for fine is Pai, so the town is now Paihia (pronounced Pai here).

Once on the boat we got chatting to a couple of groups of Brits, one who has lived in NZ for 40 years and worked for a while with the NZ Royal Navy and another guy who also served in the Royal Navy. Lets just say there was a lot of Navy chat for a while. We picked up some more people from Russell (more on that place later) and then set off through the islands. The Bay of Islands is a subtropical micro-region made up of 144 islands. The islands are absolutely stunning. Our skipper provided interesting commentary throughout the trip telling us that only 4 of the islands were inhabited, 2 of those are fully privately owned and you can only camp on one of the islands.

We were very lucky because quite early on we saw a pod of Bottlenose dolphins following our boat and jumping out of the water showing off. We saw another pod later on, but they were travelling at a much quicker speed when we were out in open ocean on our way to the Hole in the Rock. Dolphins and other marine mammals are usually spotted about 80% of the time on these trips, but are never guaranteed. It was breathtaking seeing them jump out of the water and playing around.

We kept heading through the beautiful islands and eventually made our way up to the Hole in the Rock. This island is the most pristine in all of the Bay of Islands with no sign of any introduced species. The 60 foot hole at sea level was created over centuries by wind and waves. Unfortunately we were unable to go through the hole in the rock due to the swells on the North side, but luckily we made it up there to see it. The waves were nothing like the day before, but the skipper kept saying it was going to get rough and windy, he kept going on about seaspray. Fortunately i think he was just over exaggerating because I didn’t get sick at all.

On the way back from the Hole in the Rock we stopped for lunch at the largest island in the bay, Urupukapuka at Otehei Bay. Lunch was soup, bread, a wrap and a brownie. Pretty tasty stuff and much needed after our exciting morning. We had a walk around the island after lunch and went up to the top of a hill for a panoramic view. The view was stunning. The water was crystal clear, beautiful sandy beaches and all of these interesting island formations. I was finding it hard to believe we were in New Zealand it looked so tropical.

We made sailed back to Russell and this time we got off there. As part of our tour you get a ferry passenger ferry ticket from Russell to Paihia, so we decided to spend and hour or so there looking around. Russell used to be known as the ‘hell hole’ of the Pacific. It was the first permanent European Settlement in New Zealand and because of its links to whaling, prostitution and a lack of law enforcement. It’s pretty nice now and I don’t think anyone would call it a hell hole anymore.

We walked along the front and then went and visited the oldest church in New Zealand – Christ Church. There was an interesting gravestone which belongs to the chief of the Maori people in Northlands at the time the treaty was signed with Britain. You could see gun shot holes and bullets in the side of the church from a siege. I’m not really sure what the siege was about though.

To end our time in Russell we went to a cafe and had a smoothie and a milkshake before taking the ferry back over to Paihia. We decided we didn’t want to go back to the campsite just yet, so went to see Hurura waterfalls just outside of Paihia. We have seen quite a lot of waterfalls recently and it always amazes me how each one is so different. This one was no different with the falls being pretty powerful initially and then all of a sudden calm in the river below.

We settled in for the night as we had an early start the next day on our second excursion whilst up in Northlands.

I’m going to leave this blog here because the wifi at this McDonalds is so bad and I’m getting a headache from moaning at it so much! I will aim to do the next day as soon as possible.