Our little campervan of love has almost finished rolling down the highway of life, greedily gobbling up the km. Now done another 2,500km exploring the North Island, which is warmer and more populated than the South.

First stop was Wellington, where we met up with a family friend who happened to be a Wellingtonian, so we got shown the sights. Our timing was impeccable - we'd arrived on the eve of NZ's first ever International Rugby 7's tournament, so after a quick visit to Te Papa Museum, we saw some amazing rugby being played by Fiji, NZ, Oz, Sth Africa, etc (for those in the know, Serevi was legendary, Lomu and Cullen paled in comparison) - 2 bits of Kiwi culture in 1 day!

Next was the East Coast - after a quick stop at Napier, a beautiful seaside town that was destroyed by an earthquake and rebuilt entirely in Art Deco style, we headed inland to the lakes of Taupo, thus entering seriously smelly 'thermal territory'. Now geographers, check this out - we were told that the distance seperating the hot core of the Earth, and the actual surface can be 80-120km in the UK - whereas in Rotorua, NZ, its only 4-8km. Hence loads of thermal activity - bubbling mud pools, natural spas, steaming craters, smoke coming out of pavement cracks and geysers that blow. The price for such wonders of natture is unfortunately a fairly shocking sulphurous rotten egg stench.

Holding our breath we headed upwards to the Bay of Plenty, Coromandel Peninsula, straight through Auckland and up to the Bay of Islands - all very scenic, nice coves - great for just swimming and chilling out. We're now back in Auckland for 2 days before our flight to Tahiti for 5 days, then we're back here for a few more days before we fly on to Buenos Aires.

Looking back over our stay in NZ, the South Island was far more action-packed, the North was more laid back - sitting in a river which was naturally hot in places, cold in others, and digging holes in the sand so that scorching water forced its way UP for a natural foot spa certainly slows the tempo down. The other noticeable difference here on the North Island is the increase in Maori culture. We went to a Maori concert and who gets pulled out of the crowd to accept (on behalf of the crowd) the traditional 'peace or war?' dance, and then to try the 'haka', but James?

All in all a great country. So now its goodbye campervan, hello backpack.