Not Pot Noodles - Phil

We had a pretty restless night's sleep at Flecther Bay, and ended up getting up at 3 in the morning to do some night-time photography. Meg has been doing some cool interesting long-exposure shots of the nightsky and surrounding landscapes, but it does mean we are pretty tired in the morning!

Once the morning came, we had our hot lemons and muesli's, and then had a nice stroll along the beach for half an hour, which seemed like a good thing to do on a Tuesday morning. We also found a swing attached to a large tree so treated ourselves to 10 minutes of unadulterated fun. It was fun.





Meg didn't fancy driving back along the scary unsealed clifftop road,



so I drove us halfway to Whitianga before Meg took over. Whitianga is on the eastern coast of the peninsula, and to get there we had to go up, up, and UP over the hills (2nd gear all the way!), but we got a great view of both the seaboards from the top.



In Whitianga, before we could do anything else we had to check our NZ bank balance, as we had been waiting nearly 2 weeks for our UK account to transfer over much-needed funds, otherwise we would have pennies to live on. True to form, the banks were utterly useless. The money hadn't transferred and we had pennies to live on.

There wasn't much we could do until the UK banks opened for business (the 24 hour number proved to be a lie), so we checked into one of the 2 campervan sites in town. It wasn't the coolest place we have stayed since being in NZ, but it did prove to have its uses. It was very much Motorhome Central, geared up towards the summer season when all the large mobile-home owning kiwi's come out in force for a holiday by the sea. A few of them were still around. It had separate pitches for each home, very different to the other campsites we had stayed in where you can just park up wherever you like.





We chilled out for a few hours, feelimg a bit sorry for ourselves and let down (again) by the banks. There was a trampoline that lifted my mood for five minutes, until my feet got wet.
We watched some TV(!) for the first time on 3 weeks. We saw an advert for Coronation Street (apparently there is Eastenders and Emmerdale too), so Carol Hodson, you will feel right at home.
We also watched some national news which really made me realise the size of NZ – all the stories (bar one) would have made the back-end of the local news in the UK.
In the evening, we met a very nice french couple called Remy and Melanie, who kindly gave us some Nesquik that they didn't want. I am very excited about this.

We walked back into town to ring the banks and finally started to put the pieces together as to what exactly had happened with the transfer. Needless to say, we have had to put the request in again, and wait for a few more days to see if they get it right this time. In the meantime we have managed to get some money out of the ATM here to last us a few more days, but we're watching the pennies...

The next day we didn't stay in Whitianga too long, as we had quite a lot to squeeze into the day. We drove out to a place called Hahei, which had the most perfect beach we had seen so far in NZ. We walked around the back of some houses which had their own private staircase down to the sand. We had a paddle in the pacific and spent about 30 minutes just gushing about how ace it would be to have that on your backdoorstep. Pretty cool.





From there we had a short drive to Cathedral Cove. The car park was at the top of a hill and there was a 45 minute walk down to the cove. Since being here we have seen numerous photos/postcards of Cathedral Cove and it was absolutely stunning. Being about a 45 minute walk from any carpark/road, it is pretty secluded and is surrounded by huge cliffs all around. It is also split into 2 separate beaches by an arch formation in the rocks – thus giving it the Cathedral title. It did feel very epic and felt like we had walked onto a James Bond set.







The only downer to this near-prefect moment was my ability to drop our new camera into the wet sand, thus getting sand particles into all the nooks and crannies on the back of the camera. I felt rather, if not very, stupid. Meg has done her best since to pick out all the particles (after leaving it to dry so they were more moveable), and hopefully it hasn't been affected. But I still feel stupid.

Walking back we stopped by Gemstone Bay, where there was a snorkelling trail in the water, but unfortunately we did not have enough time for this, but the water was still crystal clear and was very inviting. However, we had to rush back as we wanted to get to Hot Water Beach in time for low-tide.

For those that don't know, Hot Water Beach boasts a strange geo-thermal activity. If you visit the beach 90 minutes either side of low-tide, and dig yourself a hole in the sand in the right place, you can create your own HOT bath. Don't ask me how it works, but basically hot water seeps through the sand if you deep dig enough, and as we made our way around the corner to the section of the beach where this happens, we came upon about 30 people frollicking around in the hot water 'pools' that they had created. It was very weird, but strangely seducing. People take their own spades (or hire them) and dig these 'pools' (paddling pool size) and sit in them in the hot water. If your hole is close enough to the ocean, the tide sometimes washes in its own cold water to make the water more bearable. I say this becase the water from under the ground is HOT. I could only just bring myself to sit in it, but you could push your hand deeper into sand and it was nearly scoldingly hot.
The whole area was very steamy and very sociable - everyone shared their pools with other people and all in all, it was a very odd pleasurable experience. We loved it.







I got a cold shower back at the car park to wash all the sand off, and then we had a pot noodle each.......Well, I SAY Pot Noodle, but the NZ lookalikes have proved to be a very distant and poor relation to that Great British institution. Pot Noodles, we miss you.

Meg drove us from there down towards Whangamata, another beach resort on the east coast, but we were actually camping about 7km outside of there. It was another DOC campsite, so very basic facilities (dump toilet and cold shower), but very quiet and peaceful. Apparently these sites get really crowded in the summetime, but we have been fortunate to have our pick of the place, and at this campsite there was only one other couple camping.



In the next morning, we had no major plans, so took ourself off for a walk from the campsite along the Wentworth River. We follwed a track for about an hour and it led the way to the Wentworth falls – 2 HUGE waterfalls, one above the other. It was really magical, and we made our way down to the splash pool at the bottom. People do go swimming in there, but it fet just a little bit too icy for us – maybe in the summer.





When we got back to Peggy, we treated(?) ourselves to a cold shower, and headed off to Whangamata to have some lunch. Whangamata is a surf mecca apparently, and we ate our sandwiches while watching some surfers do....not very much actually. It must have been an off-day. Or they were rubbish surfers.

We have now driven further south towards a town called Waihi, and camped in a place called Dickey Flat, which is a FREE DOC campsite. From here it is a short walk to the Karangahake gorge, which was the centre of the Goldmining industry about 100 years ago, so in the next couple of days we will hope to see some of that. And to find out how they get those perfectly-shaped gold bullion ingots out of the hillside.

Dick Thornby, Zane, and the Stubbie wearers - Meg

It's now Tuesday evening and I find myself feeling happier about being next to a power point than is probably necessary.... but lets hear it for plugging in and charging up!

We are finding it increasingly difficult to get on line so have decided to write this as we're going and then upload it when the opportunity arises. I am surprised that the proprietors of the various coffee shops haven't cottoned on to wireless internet - they could be charging per person instead of only one person being able to use their dinosaur of a PC.

Anyway...

On Sunday we made the most of the breaks in the rain which were usually full of sunshine and went for a walk up the hills behind Colville farm. We followed a hand-drawn map that had been supplied in the useful “Things to Do on Coville Farm” booklet. It seems if you want to learn how to shear sheep, round up sheep, cows, horses, go river swimming, milk daisy the cow, horse trek... this is the place to be.... in summer! As it is just coming into winter we made do with the hills. I can't say we got lost because we didn't, we just couldn't find the gloworm cave. I was really looking forward to seeing real life gloworms. I think the map might have been drawn quite some time ago and some of the tracks have become overgrown. Still, we made it to White Star Hill which had 360º views over the Coramandel, well worth the hard uphill walk.



We spent another evening cooking, eating, washing up, reading, basically being the rock n' roll kinda kids we are.



Monday we decided to leave Colville and head for the top of peninsula. We'd been assured by the owner of the “Prowler”, Dick Thornby, that Peggy would be fine on the unsealed road that leads the way to the top of the Coramandel. So we packed up and got ready to set off...it was then when Phil turned the key and nothing happened that we both wanted to cry: Peggy's battery was flat. How could this be? I hear you ask. We can only assume it was that because of the alternator not working it has compromised the battery life. So Dick, Zane and a few other stubbie-wearers came to the rescue. We had been warned about the very short shorts (aka stubbies please see this link) that the more rural locals wear. Wow, you don't want anyone bending over in front of you in a pair of those! Anyway, they got Peggy going again for us and then we were on our way.

I popped into the Colville general store, it was like being on the set of Northern Exposure (one of my favorite TV shows). The store had everything you could need. From apples to nails, even gem stones and joss sticks!

If I thought the road to Colville was windy, I ain't seen nothing yet. Once north of Colville the road winds along the coast towards Fletcher Bay. It's only about 35km but it takes about an hour and a half just because the road is single track, windy and gravelly. It goes along a stretch of Pohutakawa trees - they are like something out of a film, old and twisted. You can imagine them coming alive at night and creaking around, like something from forbidden forest in Harry Potter.




We got to Fletcher Bay in time to do a bit of the coastal walk. So we parked Peggy up and got our boots on and off we went. I'd had a gentle coastal stroll in my head for some reason. I suppose like a walk you'd do along the Cornish coast. Nope... twas up and down, through tropical forest, over pastures (with some Very big cows), through streams, over trees, under trees. We met a man called Elly, that was working on the track (for the DOC) after we'd been walking for an hour or so (he was another stubbie wearer). He was widening the track after him and his quad bike had gone off the edge a few weeks ago. He had apparently bailed and grabbed the nearest tree as his bike went bouncing down the cliff side and landing in the ocean, luckily without him attached! We asked him about working for the DOC and he told us about his last job, culling over 5000 pigs on one of the Pacific islands. He said they used to shoot them from a helicopter. I think he seemed to enjoy this job a bit too much. It was at this point we said our goodbyes and carried on our way.








We eventually got to a hill that was aptly named the Lookout. So we went to the top and looked out. It was very nice. We then had to head back to Fletcher bay the way we came. The problem with these none-loop walks is that I know what's coming and just exactly how much UP hill there is to walk up and I find myself not enjoying the down hill bits because I know what's around the corner... and it's usually a VERY steep hill. I am sure this will gradually become less of a problem :-0

The thought of a lovely COLD outside shower was keeping me going. I did actually quite enjoy the cold shower, afterwards. In my Jane Scrivener Total Detox book, she highly recommends cold showers. I kept thinking about this when I thought my head was going to concave with the ice cold water. “This is fine, this will quicken my metabolism, this will mean the crisps I had at lunch don't count” breath, squeeze hair.... yes there are still soap suds in your hair you have to go back under... “OK, this means the chocolate after tea last night and the crisps YESTERDAY lunch don't count”... breath, squeeze hair... yes there are still soap suds...Soap suds are fine, maybe this will act like one of those leave in hair conditioners?

The Alternator: Judgement day - Phil

On Wednesday, after we had left Peggy at Lord of the Dings, we whiled away some time in a coffee shop (Esquires provide free internet when you buy anything from them, so we have been having numerous juices/hot chocolates), and then headed into the main city centre as we had to buy Meg some new walking boots, as her current ones have had a hole appear in them. There was about 2 decent outdoor shops and Meg spent a healthy 90minutes umming and erring over 2 pairs of boots, until finally selecting one of them. In this time, Lord of the Dings had also rang through to inform us that they'd finished with Peggy (about 6 hours earlier than expected!).
We headed back to pick Peggy up, but she didn't seem to want to start very easily. In fact, we just drove around the corner to have some sandwiches, and when we tried to start her again, she wouldn't start at all! We queried the Dings dudes about whether they had played around with the battery etc, which they denied, and they then proceeded to give us a push start down the hill. This did ultimately kick the engine into action and we were on our way!!


Our experience in Auckland has made us very wary and suspicious of mechanics (much moreso than we were already!), but we feel we are in a bit of a no-win situation. We are obviously foreigners/travellers, and we imagine that we are probably being taken for a ride most of the time. But seeing as we don't know too much about cars, we are not really in much of a position to argue when they say that some repair work needs to be done, or when they say how much it is going to be!
So as soon as the engine was running, we just wanted to get out of Auckland as fast as possible, as we'd already spent nearly 2 weeks there, and were starting to feel a bit hemmed in by the city.

So we headed southwards on SH1, and then eastwards towards Thames, which is at the bottom of the Coromandel peninsula. The drive was good, and we started to see a bit of the countryside that we had been so desperate to see. We'd decided to stay at one of the DOC (Department of Conservation) campsites, which were about 14 km from Thames. The DOC has a large number of campsites all around the country, which are all quite basic in terms of facilities, but are in the most picturesque places, and well away from towns and crowds. The one we stayed in was called Hotoritori (in the Kaueranga Valley)and just had 2 non-flushing loos for the campers. The road there was FULL of potholes which Peggy coped with admirably. When we arrived we felt so relieved to have finally got away from Auckland and be on our way, and properly camping under the stars. The night was so incredibly clear and brightly-lit from the moon, it certainly felt very different to the pitch-black you often get in the UK. That evening we cooked ourselves a very tasty curry.











We have found that our days are starting very much to revolve around the sourcing of, preparation of, cooking of, and cleaning up involved with cooking. The dinner-time process takes us about 3 hours, as we have limited space in Peggy, so only one or 2 things can be done at a time. With our back-to-basics lifestyle, we feel we are starting to resemble The Good Life, so Meg is turning into Felicity Kendal (good news for me), and I am starting to turn into Richard Briers (bad news for Meg).

On Thursday morning, we woke to a cold but clear day. We had decided to head slightly out of Thames to do a walk into a Kauri Grove near a village called Wiaomu. Kauri trees are ancient indiginous trees that apparently covered the whole of New Zealand centuries ago, but when the Pakeha (white man) came to the country, nearly all of the were chopped down and exported for building materials etc. In fact, we've been told that a lot of houses in london have been built on a backbone of Kauri wood, because it is so strong.
So these Kauri groves that exist are now protected, but are still available for people to go and visit. The trees themselves are easily the biggest that I have ever seen. They are found deep in the bush and would easily take 4 or 5 people stretched out to surround their bases, and they grown straight up to about a 1000 metres high. Well, it seems like it.
The walk itself was excellent. It was only about 2 hours long, but took us deep into the forest/bush and we had numerous river crossings to negotiate, which we traversed all successfully except one that Meg managed to put both her feet straight into the water (only ankle deep). Saying that, it was a good way of testing the waterproofing on Meg's new boots. Needless to say, they passed with flying colours.







HOWEVER, earlier on in the day, as we had been setting off to the beginning of the walk, guess what? Peggy started to play up again. It took about 5 efforts to get her to start, sounding like the battery was flat. We headed straight to the mechanics who had taken an early lunch break and told us to come back later in the day. So after the walk, we headed back and the mechanic asked to see the battery, which we eventually found underneath the driver's seat (Campervans – all of them, not just ours – seem to have very different engines to most cars. The engine itself is under the passenger seat). He tested it, and diagnosed that the problem was not the battery, but the alternator! Apparently these can just give up without warning, which must be what has happened as Peggy had not shown any symptons in the previous few days. But we still cursed our bad luck.

SO....., back to the garage for us and Peggy on Friday. Fortunately the garage could access a reconditioned alternator and do it all in one day, so we checked her in in the morning and left them to it. We were going to take ourselves off for another walk, but the weather and the forecast was not good (rain and thunderstorms), so we instead went to the local (tiny) cinema at 11am in the morning! There wasn't a massive selection to watch, but we settled on Star Trek. I have never watched much Star Trek before, but Meg surprised me by telling me that she ALWAYS watches the movies....

I have married a trekkie.

After the cinema, we whiled away the next few hours mooching around and not spending any money, and Peggy was finally fixed for us to go at about 4.30pm.

We decided to get out of Thames, as it is not the most inspiring of towns (functional more than anything), and headed north to Coromandel Town, about 40km away. The drive was amazing, all the way along the coastal road, which I think Meg found quite scary – we couldn't physically get much closer to the sea at times! But we eventually headed slightly inland up into the hills, which afforded an amazing view over the coastline, and hopefully will be a sign of things to come.



We arrived at Tui Lodge (a backpacker hostel) at about 5.30pm. After staying at Hotoritori for 2 nights we hadn't showered(!), so being able to get a hot shower and cook in the kitchen at the lodge seemed like a luxury!



Our night's sleep there was a bit interrupted as we found some of the local guests turned up at 2.30am and proceeded to have a domestic argument right outside our campervan. This lasted an hour and then began again at 7am, so we weren't best rested when we properly got up at about 9am.

On Saturday morning, we went into Coromandel Town and did our laundry and then made our way along the 309 road to go for a walk up Castle Rock (526m). On the way we passed a field full of baby pigs, which we stopped at to take pictures of. A man came out of a caravan and approached us and started chatting to us. It turns out that he is a hermit who has lived there for 54 years (just in a field with his caravan), and keeps pigs and boars as pets. He has about 45 of them, and is very fond of them. He was a very nice man and didn't wear any shoes. His name was Stuart and his decendents are from Burnley- would that explain a few things?



The walk up to Castle Rock was a bit disapointing. There was a road that made its way up the hills towards the summit, but we reached some signs that said public access was closed. We tried to find other ways up to the summit, but there was no way through. We still managed to get great views but it would have been great to actually get to the top.







We have now headed further north to Colville, and are staying on Colville Farm. It is very nice but we have found ourselves camped next to the 'Prowler', a mobile mansion, which looks as ugly as it gets. Peggy feels very small next to the Prowler.



The weather is supposed to be a bit rubbish for the next few days, so we are going to take each day as it comes. We will either head to the very tip of the Peninsula, where there are some more remote DOC campsites, or head eastwards to Whitianga. The east coast of the peninsula apparently has some of the most beautiful beaches and bays tucked away, so it'll be nice if the sun comes out. But if it doesn't, we'll still enjoy ourselves somehow.

Live long and Prosper.

Lord Of The Dings! - Meg

It's now Wednesday 6th May- Happy Birthday Becci!! We have spent two nights in Peggy... but... have had to stay close to Auckland due to her failing her W.O.F. (M.O.T.) so we've needed to get her fixed. This has been a rather pricey do and has consequently bumped us into the real world.
Peggy has had the mechanical work done on her yesterday and today is getting her rust fixed, at LORD OF THE DINGS!


When we got the news that Peggy needed work doing to her before we would get our W.O.F (I always say Woof and I get funny looks from the mechanics who seemingly find it difficult to communicate with women, maybe this is why?) We decided to get out of town and make the whole experience a bit more pleasant. So Phil, Peggy and I drove into the sunset for 15 minutes until we reached Takepuna - a small suburb of Auckland by the sea. It actually felt really good to be out of town, albeit on a campsite full of swanky motor homes. Peggy looked very weathered next to them! Anyway, there is a big kitchen and clean hot showers so a good place to ease into our new travelling world. We recognised a few of the other older vans from the car market on Sunday. Their owners hadn't managed to sell them so they were doing the same as us and trying to get away from Auckland. It was nice to speak to them about their time in NZ but they're all a bit low not being able to sell their vans and just wanting to get on with the rest of their trips. One couple said they've only got $150 left (about £60). We saw another couple we'd seen at the car market, in Auckland yesterday walking into the Pawn shop with their guitar... So again we are looking forward to getting on our way and away from reality. We agreed we'd get a job before we have to pawn anything!!


I forgot to mention... before we left the hostel on Monday morning Phil was loading Peggy up, when a distraught girl came running in. She was meant to be taking her sister to the airport where she was flying back to Israel and she'd got a flat tyre. So, (get the Super man theme tune in your head)... Phil Kerr to the rescue, that was after he'd said “hold on I think I can do it, I'll just go get my wife to come and help!” So between us we mended their tyre and waved them off to the airport.


While Peggy has been getting mended we've been walking around Auckland, going to galleries, walking in the parks, taking pictures, sorting more boring paperwork out, more picture-taking, eating our packed lunches, deciding what to have for tea, moaning about Richard Hammond being on bill boards everywhere, laughing at the naff advertising, running for shelter from the rain, enjoying the amazing sun light/clouds/moody skies, taking more pictures, being grateful that we're not at work or had to pawn anything, yet!!







So hopefully by the end of today we will be on our way to the Coromandel. We hope you are all well :-) x

Peggy - Phil

Today I have felt like Janine in Ghostbusters:

We got one!!!!!!

However, before I explain, here are some pictures from yesterday: leaving Waiheke, Meg writing postcards surrounded by our luggage (we travel light!), and me in our delectable hostel room.






Now, to explain my Ghostbusters emotions.
After 6 days and about 20 campervans later, we have finally settled on (and bought) Peggy, a Toyota Hi-ace LWB.
She is fantastic. She has a high roof so you can pretty much stand up in her, and has a gas-powered fridge and a double gas stove to cook on, as well as a worktop, double bed, fishing equipment (yes, i'm going to learn to fish), and loads of storage and living space. She is diesel and 5 gear manual. We love her.

The owners were a english lady (Treacle) and a frenchman (laurent) and their 2 year old baby (Roxanne).



They have only had Peggy for 2 months, and Peggy has done quite a lot of mileage (like you would not believe), but we got her for a cut-down price so we can spend any money we have saved on her for any repairs/maintenance required. That's the plan.

We got up very early this morning, and got a few buses across town to Ellerslie racecourse where there is a car market every sunday. There were about 20 campervans, and we had already seen about half of them over the lat week ro so, so it was weird to see all the owners again. But we found Peggy and don't know how we hadn't heard or seen any ads for her before now. We took her for a test drive, and by 10am we had agreed a price and done the deal. We went back to their house (they were staying with their uncle in a posh suburb of Auckland) and signed the papers and then drove her back to ponsonby as OUR CAR. On the way back we stopped at a massive out-of-town warehouse and got a few necessary replacements for Peggy - we have treated ourselves to a new duvet, new storage boxes, some food, and cleaning stuff. We have come back to the hostel tonight to sort out all our things ahead of tomorrow. Of course we have been out for a celebratory beer, wine and tapas meal.

Tomorrow morning we are going to the garage to get a WOF (the equivalent of a poor man's MOT, required every 6 months), fill her up with diesel, go to the post office for final ownership details, and then we'll be heading off.

Our initial plan is to hread towards the Coromandel peninsula, to the east of Auckland. You can make out the outline of the mountains from Auckland, and it looks very dramatic, and is allegedly very unspoilt.

So we leave Auckland after about 10 days. We have been here slightly too long, but do quite like the city overall. But we just want to get out and see some proper countryside, hills, lakes, and forests. We don't know when we'll next get a chance to blog as we'll be dependent on when and where we find internet access in the rest of the country.

Diddley-Squat - Phil and Meg

We haven't got long on our internet usage, as we are currently in a backpacker hostel in trendy ponsonby, just to the west of the city centre.
Unfortunely, Diddley i Potatoes came back from the AA with a distinctly less-then-favourable report. It would need quite a lot of work doing to it over the next few months (new tyres; repair oil leak; new radiator) that it would not be worth the hassle unless the owners were willing to drop the asking price.

The owners were not willing to drop the asking price. So we're not buying it.

We've seen some more vans today, and we are getting ever more fed up with the situation and just want to get going. We've seen a couple today that are ok, but not blown us away. we're going to the car fair tomorrow morning and then to see a rental company that are selling some of their old stock. Whatever happens, we WILL have a campervan by the end of tomorrow as we need to get cracking. It mey end up being a van that we've seen today. We'll let you know.

No pictures for the moment as we haven't got long left so no time to upload any.

We've enjoyed sleeping in a bed in the hostel, but it is a bit weird experiencing the heirarchies that exist between 'lifers' (or so it seems) and the odd passing traveller. At dinner time when we were cooking in the kitchen, we felt as if we were definitely stepping on people's toes as they walked around the place as if they owned it. We're glad we won't be staying in hostels too much. Bring on the campervan.

We're now going to learn to play cribbage.

Diddley i Potatoes - Phil

We have got a campervan!!!

Well, nearly.

Since we last wrote, we offered Michelle and Paul (Mitsu Delica) less than what they wanted, but they weren't too happy at our pitiful (but realistic) offer, so we didn't pursue that any further. We decided that more van-viewing was required, so that's what we did yesterday (Wednesday).

However, on Wednesday morning, I was starting to feel a bit lazy and un-exercised, so took myself off for a run around the nearby hills. It was fantastic and the route I took afforded the most amazing views of Auckland harbour and the beaches and bays on Waiheke. It ended with a run along Blackpool beach, which made me feel at home.

We hoped there would be a chance to see and stay with Jo Clayton, a friend of Meg's from the UK who has been working in Auckland. So we took a possible change of clothes with us into Auckland. However, we didn't have a very appropriate bag/daysack, so our first task was to get a new bag. I get particularly excited when we get to go into camping shops, so after getting the midday ferry into town we spent about an hour looking at bags and rucksacks, and camping stuff. It was ace. I love my new rucksack, and got to wear it all day. I can't wait for the next time I can use it.

We arranged to see the new lot of vans at the Ponsonby backpackers, the same place as where we had been on Monday. It was just slightly out of town, and was quiet enough for the vans to find somewhere to park and us to look around.

The first one was owned by Nick, and was a long-wheel-base Toyota hi-ace. It was excellent. It had loads of fittings (fridge, sink, bed-cum-sofa) and looked more like a caravan than a campervan. However, we weren't sure about Nick, a mancunian who had just had the van a few weeks and wanted to get rid of it as he was going to be travelling in a group of 5, and obviously the van wasn't big enough to cater for that many people. The van was very sensible, but lacked a bit of character. Also, he wanted quite more money than anyone else we had seen.

The second van was Tobin and Marianne, from Denmark and their Mitsubishi Delica. It was ok, but no better than some of the other ones we'd seen on Monday.

The third van was 2 German girls with their Mazda Bongo. Unfortunately for them they had their van broken into the night before, and had ALL their stuff stolen (except their passports), so just wanted to get rid of the van asap before flying back home. We felt really sorry for them as they had lost all their clothes, possessions, and photos from their travels. But we're still not buying their rubbish van.

The 4^th van was owned by a surfer dude who took great pains to tell and show us the handiwork that he had done on his van. He had built all the framework for the bed in the back, and was incredibly proud of what he had done. Unfortunately he came across as just too pushy so we were immediately sceptical of his selling tactics. However, it is clear to us that we have arrived in NZ at a time when there are loads of vans for sale, but not very many buyers. Most people are really desperate to get rid of their vehicles before they are forced to give it away for nothing to some dodgy dealer.

Our final car that we saw is the one that we are hoping to get. Meg was initially unsure about seeing the van as the advert that had been placed in the hostels just showed a silly, garish, painted van, that was traveller-cliche all over, but when the van pulled up beside us, we immediately liked it. The guys that own the van (John and Jess, a german couple) clearly both love the van and desperately don't want to have to sell the van. They have kept it in good condition, and seemed very trustworthy, and we warmed to them straight away. It is a long-wheel-base toyota hi-ace, so had lots of room, and makes all the other vans seem really cramped. It is high enough to almost stand up straight it, and plenty of room to get changed without having to do everything lying down on the bed. It is a 5 speed manual car and has the gear stick on the steering column which was a bit weird at first, but not too difficult to get used to. It has the ability to get hooked up to electricity points (available at campsites), and comes with a host of added extras: lots of storage space/boxes, some drawers, remote control lights for night-time, a surfboard and bodyboard, 2 wetsuits, a tool box, gas stove, 2 heaters/fans for when it's cold/hot, and lots more. The van has also done a lot less mileage that most of the rest that we had seen..

Although we had doubts initially (when we saw the advert) we have decided we love the fact it has 'Diddly I Potatoes painted on the bonnet, a pegasus-style horse on one side and a BFG on the other. But we figure that if we're going to go travelling, we may as well go travelling in a hippy style van. We won't get the chance to have a van like this again, so why not? We'll certainly remember where we parked it.

We rang John and Jess a few hours after discussing our options, and they came to meet us and discuss the payment. We didn't want to pay as much as they were asking, so they have agreed to lower their asking price so that they have not lost out on what they have paid and put into the van. However, before we exchange monies, we are taking the van for an AA inspection check tomorrow afternoon. Presuming that everything is fine, we will agree to buy the van, and then our adventures can properly start!!

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay with Jo Clayton last night as she was busy at work, but we will hopefully see her another day. Instead we got the late ferry back to Waiheke.

Today we have spent the day around the house. I have made a cracking spanish omelette for lunch, and Meg went with Heidi to take the childen to playgroup.

This afternoon Heidi took us to the eastern part of the island, which was out of this world. It is pretty much deserted of people, except for a few hippies here and there, and the odd 'bach' (a kind of cool wooden holiday home). We saw the most awesome bays and clifft op views, quite a few vineyards, and forests. Meg took the obligatory photos, and then we raced back home in order for Heidi to take Kirby to the boat so he could go to work.

Tomorrow, we will be doing the AA check with the campervan. If it's considered ok, we will hope to exchange money tomorrow, but it still may take a few days if the banks don't play ball. So the best scenario is that we can head off tomorrow night into the sunset. The less-good scenario is we have to wait 3-4 days for bank transfers to take place, and then we can head off into the sunset. The worst-case scenario is that the AA think the van is rubbish and we have to start off all over again and there is no sunset.