Copyright © Tanya Piejus, 1997

Day 1

We got to Auckland at 6 am and had a shower at the airport after collecting our luggage. The fact that we could do this and were given a free cup of tea while we waited for our bags to appear made me think that New Zealand's a very civilised country indeed.

After picking up the car, we headed north out of Auckland and up the west coast of Northland. A friendly Maori lady gave us sausages, eggs, toast swimming in butter and vegemite at a greasy spoon by the sea. The weather was warm and clear after an unpromising start. We stopped at Omaha beach and had a walk along the sand. It was pretty hot by then and my nose got sunburnt. It was a gorgeous golden beach with dunes and turquoise sea. From there we went to a palm garden that also had a cafe and had a beer under waving palm leaves and tree ferns. The vegetation is so lush and green here. The houses are nestled between wonderful trees and rambling foliage that's nothing like our own. The houses themselves are mostly single storey and made of wood. They are very attractive to look at and each one is different from the rest so avoiding the tedious monotony of identical architecture at home.

The drive up to the ferry to Kawau Island was more of the same over green bush-covered hills. It's all very beautiful - like all the best bits of Britain put together.

The ferry from Sandpits was going to take us directly to the Mansion House where Mum and my grandparents spent a holiday in the early '50s, but the captain asked us and the other passengers if we'd mind if they did some drop-offs first. An hour and a quarter later we were still stopping off at jetties all round the island and picking up and letting off people and parcels. The Mansion House is a fantastic colonial-style place with big, wood-panelled rooms and lovely views across the bay. It's surrounded by native bush and rings with bird calls.

We stayed the night in Parua Bay with a lovely couple called Pat and Peter. Peter showed me round a bit of their 70 acres of land. Two areas are native forest and a lot of the rest is pasture for an assortment of cows. He told me about the trees and birds which was great as I'd been wondering what the plants were called and I haven't got a bird book yet.

We ate with them too and had a very Kiwi dinner - asparagus for starters, then roast lamb, sweet potatoes and pumpkin, followed by passion fruit pavlova. We also had two bottles of very pleasant local wine. It was perfect way to spend out first night in NZ - lovely people, a great view, delicious food.

Day 2

Today we headed for the Bay of Islands. We drove north to Russell on the main A road first then were supposed to turn off for Russell at a 'locality/town' called Whakapapa. It was my turn to navigate and I naturally assumed that Whakapapa would be a fair-sized settlement but the point where I thought the turn-off would be came and went and we carried on until we came to a place that was definitely too far down the road. We turned back and the 'town' of Whakapapa turned out to consist of four houses! This and the fact that the road sign telling you where the road went was after the turning made it virtually impossible to get it right first time. Also, Kiwis can't drive!

A fairly long section of the road was metalled (unsealed) which was entertaining. It was also full of hills and very bendy but the road was worth the effort though because around every corner was another fantastic golden beach, even better than the last.

The strange on/off weather is still going on and when we got to Russell we decided that a boat trip round the islands wouldn't be worth doing as it was likely to be very bumpy, cold and wet ride. Instead, we had a light lunch, having been stuffed full of breakfast, and pottered around Russell. The museum had a few interesting bits and pieces including a 1/5 scale replica of Cook's 'Endeavour', a scary great white's jaw and a set of very strict rules for teachers dating back to the pioneer days. There was also a nice 10-minute video of Russell's history. It's the oldest town and has had a colourful past.

After a short walk up to the flagstaff and back, we caught the ferry to Opua then drove to Paihia. From there we walked along the beach back towards Opua. More gorgeous summer houses overlooking the beach. Aucklanders really are spoilt for weekend retreats.

After saying hello to our hosts for tonight and leaving our baggage, we went to eat at 'Tides' which is one of the most famous restaurants in NZ. It's actually run by a bloke from Poole! We had a very good fishy meal. I had half a dozen oysters to start and seared scallops on asparagus for main, followed by peach-pecan waffles. They also had sweet wontons filled with local fruit.

Day 3

Today we broke with the itinerary to follow a route suggested by our B&B hosts. It took us further north and round in a big loop, taking in the most perfect beach in the world. Te Ngaere Bay has a cluster of houses around it and nothing else. There were no people apart from us the whole time we were there. We walked along the beach in both directions and walked round the rocks to the next bay. It had a big crack right through to a tiny little cove and we collected shells with holes through them to use as napkin rings, as we'd seen done at 'Tides'.

We had a picnic lunch then went paddling. This didn't last long though because the water was freezing! There were lots of fish skeletons in various states of decay so I took some pictures of them. I'm nearly through two films which is supposed to be my allocation for the whole week. I think I might end up buying more.

I bought a bird book in Paihia this morning so have been able to identify what I've been seeing. I didn't realise that most of NZ's birds are introduced. Seeing chaffinches sitting in prehistoric tree ferns is weird to say the least. The native birds are now relatively rare.

Before we got to the beach, we stopped off in Kerikeri to see the oldest stone house in the country. Unfortunately they've covered it in scaffolding so we couldn't quite appreciate it. Next to it is the oldest wooden house, although you wouldn't know it because it looks very much the same as all the others. Modern NZ is less than 200 years old so it doesn't have a great deal of history but they do make the most of what they do have.

After doing our loop, we crossed to the west coast through pasture land dotted with pure white weatherboard Anglican churches. Most have red rooves and they look very much like New England churches in the US. They look so pretty against the green hills and forest and we stopped to photograph one.

The wind is even more fierce today than it has been but it's been hot and sunny too. More sunburn. El Nino is to blame for the gales apparently.

We had a very blowy but safe ferry crossing to near Omapere where we're spending tonight. I took some photos of the gulls and terns which were nesting on the ferry landing although I had trouble keeping the camera still.

We're now staying in a house above Omapere which has a stunning view across a massive inlet to the 500ft high sandhills opposite. These are the biggest sand dunes I've ever seen and put Camber Sands to shame.

Had a steak dinner in the Omapere Hotel and played pool. Watched a bit of TV - they get a lot of British stuff like Wycliffe, People's Century, Full Circle and soaps like Coronation Street. The news programmes even buy in reports from the BBC and CNN. Didn't see any other home-grown product.

Day 4

After saying good-bye to our hosts, having had a lovely breakfast which included their own eggs, we hit the road for Waipoua Kauri Forest. It's the only place so far where we've been advised to mind the car and seen warning signs. So we went in shifts to see the trees. The first we saw was Tane Mahuta, the Lord of the Forest, which is 51.5m high and 1250 years old. It has an absolutely straight trunk and is a whole community in itself, with a variety of other plants growing in the crooks of its branches. We then went to see the Four Sisters who all seem to grow out of the same root system.

We had to carry on driving after that through the lush forest and saw some more on the way. There are a couple of bridges with kauris either side. Two are called Darby and Joan and the others have lead to their bridge being called Soldier Bridge as there is a straight line of them along the road. I'd love to have spent much longer in the forest. It's so green and peaceful with only tropical bird calls for company. But we had to press on.

We carried on down the west coast through more open dairy country. It doesn't have anything like as much native forest as the east coast. We'd been highly recommended the Matakohe Kauri Museum and stopped there next. It was a complete history of the discovery and exploitation of the kauri trees. It was very well laid out with lots of wax models, photos, slices of wood, examples of gum amber, etc. There was almost too much to see but it was an excellent museum.

After leaving there we tanked down the coast to Auckland. Having got horrendously lost by using useless maps, crossing the Harbour Bridge and back, we wound up in Parnell, the trendy bit of the city. We're booked into the Parnell Inn, our first motel, for two nights.

Had dinner in the Java Room over the road, a cross-cultural Asian restaurant. It was an excellent meal and only cost about £17 a head for three courses and wine. Prices generally seem very reasonable and I don't think it's just to do with a favourable exchange rate for us.

Day 5

Started the day with poached eggs, smoked salmon and Hollandaise sauce on a bagel. Yum! We then took the bus to the ferry building which is quite a sight in itself. We had quite a while before the ferry to Waiheke sailed so we pottered up Queen Street, the Oxford Street of Auckland (but less tacky). Auckland's so much quieter than most European cities. There are far fewer people around and less traffic making it a stress-free place to walk around in. It's also beautifully clean and there are no beggars. The air quality isn't fantastic in the centre but it's massively better than in London.

We took the QuickCat to Waiheke Island, passing a young (600 yr old) volcano on the way, Rangitoto. Landed at Matiatia where buses to other parts of the island were waiting. Took the bus to Oneroa, an arty, hippy kind of place and the 'capital' of Waiheke. Oneroa has all the facilities you'd need on a day-to-day basis and its own beach. The whole island is much more populace than Northland and a lot of people live on Waiheke and commute across the water to work in Auckland, which seems like a pretty good lifestyle to me.

We followed a recommended cycle route 7 miles to Onetangi, the one-horse town where my family came a couple of times on holiday. The hotel where they stayed and the general store are still there largely unchanged, even though they came over 40 years ago. We would have spent more time there had the weather been better but it began to rain.

Had a really good Italian meal in another restaurant over the road from the motel and watched the news before bed. We're regularly crashing out at 10 now and waking up about 6 which is fine for going places but not for doing anything in the evenings. Not that there is much to do in the evenings in most places! It might have been nice to see a bit of Auckland's nightlife though.

Day 6

Today was rellies and friends visiting day. We went first to Mount Eden where Mum and co. went on their last day in New Zealand in 1955. Unfortunately, it was raining again and very windy up there but we could still see quite a lot. Light levels are very high here even when it's raining so I could still take pictures of downtown Auckland and One Tree Hill.

Next stop was St Heliers, an affluent suburb along the east coast, where my grandparents' friends live. They are well into their 70s but are still very fit and healthy-looking. They're really nice people and talked a lot about Mamma who we all still miss.

We then trundled down on out of Auckland down to Te Awamutu where Mum's second cousin lives. She and her husband are also very young-looking. It must be all the fresh fruit and clean air or something! There was a fantastic sunset this evening. I hope it bodes well for tomorrow.

Day 7

My day started 65m underground with my bum in an oversized inner tube. I went blackwater rafting which isn't really rafting at all but involves donning a wetsuit, cut-down wellies and a miner's helmet and riding subterranean rivers on a huge rubber ring. I was in a group of 12 - 3 Japanese, 2 from Hong Kong, 2 Swiss, 2 South Africans, 2 Germans and me - and 3 guides.

There had been a lot of rain two days ago and the cave had to close yesterday because the level was too high, but today it was just right to make it really fun.

After a practice at 'eeling up' (sitting behind each other in a long line, holding the person behind's feet in your armpits) and jumping in the river, we headed up through the forest and through a crack in the ground to the Raukuri underground river.

After negotiating the 2m drop into the cave we sat getting our eyes accustomed to the dark and having a getting-to-know-you session. We were then stoked up on chocolate-covered marshmallow fish before heading into chest-deep cold water. The first test of our mettle was going under a ledge only 8 inches above the water surface with one ear in the river, pushing our tubes in front of us. We walked a bit then had to jump over a small waterfall before we got our first real tube ride. This was down the main river where it was particularly fast flowing. That was great fun!

More walking with the rings then what we were really there for - glow-worms. We eeled up, switched off our headtorches and lay back to see millions of little ethereal green lights all over the roof of the tunnel. It was so beautiful, like looking at a night sky packed with stars.

More walking and floating took us to another glow-worm cave where we floated through individually with our lights off, bounding gently off the walls and slowly spinning.

It all ended too soon when we floated out of the caverns into daylight. We popped out in the forest and made some walkers do double-takes. It wasn't quite over then though because we jumped back into the river and floated back to where we started. Hot showers and soup restored me to normal. It was really great fun - even better than whitewater rafting, and the glow-worms were really special.

We had a quick scoot round the Waitomo Caves Museum which was interesting then headed for Rotorua. All along the way there were broom bushes covered in yellow flowers. Much of the landscape has been cleared of native forest. The forest that is there is planted pine so it all looks very different from Northland. In fact, a lot of it is like the Derbyshire Dales - rolling, slightly rocky, green pasture land. Other bits near Rotorua are like Scotland with high, rocky crags and lots of little lakes. There seems to be a lot of hydroelectric power generation in the area.

Rotorua itself is the most touristy place we've been so far. Motels fight for space along Fenton Street and there's a 24-hour drive-thru burger bar or pizza joint on every corner. It's still all very clean and well looked after though, like the rest of NZ. 'Clean, green New Zealand' is no lie.

We're in the Town Talk Motel. Naff name but a good place to stay. I have a separate room, unlike in the Parnell Inn, and we have kitchen facilities, free milk and genuine mineral hot pools next door. The only disadvantage is that it reeks of sulphur, as does most of Rotorua, because of the geothermal activity.

We hiked up to the lakeside to find a church that we'd been told about. We found it but it was closed so we couldn't see the stained glass window of the Maori Christ. The lake behind it makes it look as it he's walking on water.

We had dinner in a Creole restaurant. I had a steak with a whole scampo, flambeed at the table in Pernod. It wasn't so much a flambee as a conflagration! Had 15 mins in the mineral pool before bed. I ache from the rafting.

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