After seeing Camilla and Patrick off, I met up with my friend Jo, who  recently moved into a brand new designer home in Auckland.  I am so impressed with many of my friends' living arrangements, they live in such style! After a short visit, in which Jo helped me plan my north island jaunt, I flew off to KeriKeri, or The Bay of Islands,...

For our first stop in NZ we have headed north about 250 km from Auckland to a town called Russel in the pretty Bay of Islands. It's a bit like a little seaside town Devon or Cornwall, with a small pontoon and lookout hill nearby where you can see all around the bay. At the top of the hill stands a flagpole which, after a number of years of argum...

We went up to Northland and did some camping then picked up Debbie and Gerry in Aukland. More to come.

Russell - 'The Hell Hole of the South Pacific'. Not my words, more the words of Charles Darwin when he visited NZ's first capital city in 1835. Russell was the home then of Sailors, Prostitutes, Pimps and escaped convicts from Australia and was a town of bars and brothels. Now you are more likely to see quaint European and American tourists jump...