Jen, Stu and the boys, a year in the States 2013, 2014 6 months, 2015 4 months: November 2014

We decided it would be a good idea to get ourselves into a similar timezone for a few days after leaving the US,

and figured a stopover in Auckland would be good for that. This turned into 3 weeks travelling the length and breadth of North Island.

Unfortunately, Stuart had hurt his back badly in the US a few days before leaving and on the day we were due to fly out of Denver, we were on the phone trying to arrange a change of flight so he could rest his back. We couldn't, and he endured a very painful, uncomfortable flight from Denver, to LA, to Auckland. When we landed in Auckland,

we got the biggest shock...it was WINTER!!

We had just left a beautiful warm climate in the US, forgetting we were travelling to the Southern Hemisphere, where our seasons were (of course) the opposite...how bloody stupid were we! We hung around the airport for a while before we could pick up our hire car, drove to our hotel and Stu was able to stretch out his back for a few hours. Then, in typical Stuart style, he got bored with that and I got to watch him painfully get in and out of the car as we went for a drive around Auckland....

The next day we were picking up our motorhome that we had hired for 3 weeks, so went a did a bit of grocery shopping. We had spent the past few months in the US, spending as much as we needed to with no problem, (and saving money) to seeing a lettuce for $5, 2 tomatoes for $7 in a grocery store in Auckland. This was when reality struck and we realised we had to be really careful with our spending.
We picked up our RV....

just kidding. Quite a lot bigger than we thought we were getting, but comfortable enough. Thank god we asked for 2 doonas instead of one and paid extra for the fan heater!

Even though we had the RV, we had looked at couchsurfing as well and had organised to park the RV at a couple's house for our first night. We looked at the distance from Auckland to where we were to spend our first night and it was only a few 100kms...so we figured we could spend a bit of time exploring before we got there.

Lesson number one: distances mean nothing in NZ...it's more about the roads...and it was a steep, windy road we took to get to Lil and John's place, arriving in pitch black at around 7pm...and it was FREEZING!! Lil and John were an amazing couple, living in a gorgeous home. They had prepared dinner for us which was delicious and (God bless them), offered us a bed for the night...not just a bed, but a whole granny flat, fully decked out. It was blissful. The next morning we had a wholesome breakfast and were then shown around their fantastic property, with fruit trees everywhere and lovely views of rolling green hills....

We felt very fortunate to meet Lil and John...they had the most incredible travel stories...backpacking through countries, including Asia and Africa for a couple of years, inspiring Stuart more than me, to want to backpack around the world!! I still need convincing!
After leaving there, we went down to Rotorua. We booked another night in a cheap hotel as it was freezing (colder than when we were in Alaska), which overlooked the geysers and bubbling mud pools.

It was pretty speccy to see and we soon got used to the smell. What really annoyed us though was the hotel was advertised as having wifi (which is very important when travelling) and when we got there, there was no wifi at all. We rang the front desk and were informed that with all the geothermal activity nearby, the wiring ends up with residue on it, making wifi very spasmodic. Spasmodic...or non existent?! Annoying when you are paying for it! Anyway...it was still interesting to see this from the balcony of our room....

One thing I like about travelling in RV's is you have everything with you and can pull over at anytime for meals, breaks etc. After leaving Rotorua we were happy to stop for a coffee and found a lovely spot by a little creek.

Stu enjoyed a quick (cold) dip....

before deciding to move the RV a little further up the creek, driving on the stones near the water. We took another photo...not too dissimilar to the first photo,

jumped back into the RV to only have the wheels start spinning....and water appearing each time they spun!! SO, we started digging, only to have the wheels go further into the stones. In the meantime, a bloke drove past, saw us in a spot of bother, pulled in and towed us out. According to Stuart, we weren't "technically" bogged as we didn't ask for help...it just came...AND there were no photos to prove it, but as I am the author of this blog, and I was there...WE WERE BOGGED!!
Now, it has been a few months since we returned from NZ and so much has been going on that I kind of have forgotten names of places that we went to.....so I shall just post a few photos of places we travelled, up the west coast of Auckland.

driving on narrow, windy, gravel roads that hugged the coast.....

while taking in breathtaking views of the coastline...

and stopping to check out the seals who were lounging by the side of the road....

The country is spectacular....plenty of sheep, mountains, coastlines,

sheep, mountains, sheep and mountains....and rainbows....

It also has lots of New Zealand Christmas trees, which we fell in love with and were so diverse in their shapes and sizes.....our favourite pohutukawa was at a small school.....

and was huge!

NZ offers Freedom Camping, which means you are able to camp in certain areas as long as you are self contained...this means having a toilet and shower on board. We did have both, but chose not to use the toilet, as the emptying of it was like nothing we would ever want to do, and the hot water system didn't work for hot showers. We did eventually receive a discount for the lack of hot water, but it took 2 visits to specialists, who couldn't fix it, before the rental company agreed to a discount.
We found a Freedom camping site one night, which was so picturesque....but so, so cold....I really felt for the young couple who were sleeping in their car next to us!

We had arranged another couchsurf in Napier with a guy called Dave....
Lesson Number Two....don't assume every town will have a petrol station.
Lesson Number Three...listen to Jen when she says, we should probably fuel up.
We had about 40kms to go to get to Napier, when the fuel light came on. The manual said "you may have enough fuel to get there, but it is very hilly and windy, and if you run out of fuel, you will lose power and die and your wife will be really pissed off!!!"
So we pulled over to make a phone call...no reception.....we waved someone down.....not interested in helping. By this stage it was getting a little darker and colder...(that's the weather, not me)!! Finally a truck pulled over and this lovely Englishman from Napier siphoned 40 litres of fuel from his truck into our RV.

..didn't charge us anything and refused to take a thankyou gift from us. We were so appreciative and not once did I say to Stu "I told you so." :)

We made it to Dave's place..out in the countryside and he kindly offered for us to stay in his house instead of the RV. We took it! We went out for dinner with Dave to a local pub, enjoyed a few drinks with him and he introduced us to Geocaching. Here we are, struggling with technology after a few glasses of wine!

Dave was originally from the UK, so did we mention the Ashes?? Possibly.
Geocaching
We also met another couchsurfer., a young American man called Christopher...who has spent the last few years hitchhiking and couchsurfing around the world and who has also been keeping a blog....
Christopher's blog
We spent the next night at Tolaga Bay, where the longest jetty in New Zealand is. We virtually had the place to ourselves and it was beautiful.

Dave suggested we go and spend a night at a nice little coastal town called Kairakau,

and it turned out to be one of our most favourite places in North Island. There were a few batches (holiday homes) there, hardly any people and the most beautiful scenery. I couldn't decide which photos to use, so they all made the blog....

We went for a walk along the beach

and met a gentle man named Brian, who was planting trees up in the dunes that had been destroyed in a flash flood. His wife Jan came to check on him and invited us around to their house for a hot tub and dinner, which was so nice. They were another lovely couple we had the pleasure of spending time with, although sadly Brian had recently been diagnosed with cancer.

The next day we drove out to Cape Palliser...

which we knew nothing about, so were pretty happy to discover it has the largest seal colony in NZ, and we were able to spend an hour or so sitting, watching them in their natural habitat. It was so noisy, and we felt very honoured to be the only ones there.

We climbed up to the Cape Palliser lighthouse...all 250 steps,

and once we got our breath back, enjoyed the view,

keeping an eye out for these....

but didn't see any.
The drive was scenic as we headed back out towards Wellington,

and we let out a collective sigh as we saw our first "snow mountains" since leaving the US.

Next stop was Wellington, where we only spent a few hours exploring. Most of those hours were spent with Stuart trying to reverse the RV into a jammed carpark outside the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, where we spent a few hours. It was a tight fit, but he did it!! I liked Wellington....not too big, easy to get around....

and friendly locals..."g'day, g'day!"

We had another couch-surf in Fielding, near Palmerston North, with a couple...Bev and Gary. Again, we were made to feel really welcome, with a lovely meal and even using their hot tub while they went out.

Karen was another couchsurfing host who we stayed with in New Plymouth. She cooked us a lovely meal and we were able to sleep in her house instead of the RV, which was great. She was so interesting, funny, well travelled and kept us entertained with her travel stories. We had a really enjoyable evening with her and look forward to her visiting us in WA sometime.

Mount Taranaki was resplendent....

as was the country we drove through on our way north....

We wanted to get to the northern most point of NZ so began our trip up the Aupouri Peninsula, catching the Hokianga Vehicle Ferry to make the trip a bit shorter.

We stayed the night at Rarawa Beach...just the two of us.....

and took a walk through a forest to Tane Mahuta, the largest kauri tree in NZ , measuring 4.4 metres in diameter and 17.7 metres to the first branch. A beautiful tree.

Then we hit the Te Paki sand dunes.

Again, we had the place to ourselves

... it was blowing a gale,

and the climb up was steep and windy....

but coming down was so much fun....click on the link....Downhill run

and the patterns in the dunes were amazing....

We were really missing the North American wildlife we had seen so much of, so we were excited to see a bit of North Island wildlife...although it wasn't quite the same.

We made it to the top of New Zealand, Cape Reinga/Te Rerenga Wairua, with breathtaking views either side of the peninsula.

and I found the walk out to the lighthouse very spiritual. The "Te Rerenga Wairau" component of the name in Māori language means the leaping-off place of spirits. The 'Reinga' part of the name is the Māori language word meaning the underworld. Both refer to the Māori belief that the cape is the point where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld.

There was a bay we could drive down into, and I found this gorgeous fella down there and decided to keep him!

By this stage we were busting to go to the toilet, but hung on until we got to the famous Hundertwasser Toilets in Kawakawa, which are seen as an international work of art. Was it worth the wait?

I mentioned earlier that we were introduced to Geocaching by couchsurfer Dave. This was great while in NZ as it made us stop, get out and explore areas we probably wouldn't have known about...and we came across some beautiful places while searching for geocaches...

and Whale Bay in the Bay of Plenty was one of those spots...such a beautiful beach, all to ourselves,

and the coastline along the Bay of Plenty was stunning...

We walked down to the Aratiatia Rapids,

where a few times each day, spill gates from a dam are opened at the top of the rapids

and the narrow gorge fills with turbulent water surging past at up to 90,000 litres per second.

Then, as the gates are closed about thirty minutes later, the turbulence recedes to a placid stream.The transition was amazing. Watch the rapids come down

It was our last night in NZ and we decided against staying in Auckland. We camped the night on the west coast at a place called Hamilton's Gap, near Waiuku, and again we had the entire place to ourselves.