We have arrived at Auckland Airport four hours before our scheduled departure time and to kill some time we have drafted this last blog post of our trip.

So here is a list of 18 things Kiwi’s are particularly fond of…

Fishing

With the best freshwater and sea fishing in the World, fishing is very popular…

Impressive, but nothing like as big as my fish

Boats

Big ones - needed for catching lots of big fish

4x4s

Big ones - needed to tow the big boats used to catch the big fish.

Rugby

Until we in the UK take to the game with the passion and fervour of the Kiwis, we will never consistently match the standard of the All Blacks. When the All Blacks do the Haka at the start of a rugby match, it isn’t only for show. They really do mean to kill and eat their opponents.

Walking and Hiking

Towns in NZ are almost always laid out in a grid. The Kiwis like to walk, so unlike in the...

We decided to take a diversion to Coromandel town on our way back to Auckland…

The drive was another amazing experience on empty, winding roads through forested hills beside the Pacific Ocean.

We stopped in the tiny town of Cormomandel for coffee…

…

Despite it’s small size, the town still has its own pie bakery…

We resumed our journey and passed this establishment on the way…

An old Maorie word meaning “oh dear!”

Eventually, after faultless navigation by Morna, we cruised into Auckland and into the harbour district where we checked in to our Hotel.

Our hotel, although a little careworn, turns out to get a great choice as it sits on the quayside, surrounded by great bars and restaurants and across the road from both the Maritime museum and the cruiseliner terminal.

With 1.4M inhabitants, Auckland is a proper city that is easy to visit and be in.

The sea is as big a part of...

The day opened dry, sunny and warm, with a forecast of hot sunny weather for the next few days.

We made an early start and drove North from Taupo heading for the beach resort of Whitianga on the Coromandel peninsular. Not far into the journey, the traffic lightened to almost nothing and the road began to wind through mountains and gorges clothed in fern forests.

It was a stunning drive - the best that we had enjoyed in the North Island.

With a few stops along the way, our journey took four hours and around 11:30 we arrived in Whitianga.

Whitianga is a beautiful, beachfront town of about 3,000 inhabitants.

The weekend was a bank holiday (Friday was NZ’s national day) and the numbers swelled to 35,000 or so. Not that the place felt that busy.

Our Motel was right on the beach, with a balcony over looking Mercury bay. Our room was large, spotless and well very equipped. This motel...

We left Taupo early and took the road to Rotarua.

This trip took about an hour and a half, so we arrived around 10am.

We found a cafe down by the lake and had a coffe while we decided how to spend the day. We were only staying one night and there is a lot to see.

You can smell Rotorua well before you arrive (like Grimsby) and the pong of sulphur dioxide gas permeates the town, leaving you with a permanantly dry mouth.

The Earths crust is very thin here and Rotorua sits on top of a huge magma chamber just 4,000 meters below street level. The volcanic rocks are porous and so rain water can percolate to depths where the temperature of the surrounding rock reaches boiling point.

This place steams and stinks.

Otherwise, it’s a very nice place to be.

We discovered that our Motel was quite central and next to Kuirau park (they let us check in early). So the plan was to walk across the...

Mt. Ngauruhoe

We departed the motel early and set out, South around lake Taupo, through Turangi to Tongariro national park.

The park encompasses a group of active volcanos including Mt. Ruapehu, Mt Tongariro and Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom in the film Lord of the Rings).

The national park is huge, very scenic and deserted.

We make our way to Whakapapa in the centre of the park, high on the slopes of the mountains and the starting point of a number of trails around the volcanos.

Chataeu Tongariro Hotel, Whakapapa Village

We walked a circular three hour trail through some spectacular, if somewhat bleak scenery.

We did pass some classy waterfalls though…

After are walk, we drove another 6km up to the ski area and had lunch at the cafe.

I can imagine that with a few feet of snow, this place would be beautiful, but in summer it was far from pretty. The ski area is at 2,000...

We cruised into Taupo and checked into our motel early (you can always check into motels early here).

Taupo is a lake resort town with lots to do, so we followed what is becoming a familiar routine and headed first for the tourist information office for a chat.

We decided that, since it was overcast and windy, be could best spend the afternoon on a riverboat trip up the Waikato river to see the Huko falls.

Lake Taupo is a huge lake that is a caldera, formed as a result of a massive prehistoric eruption (10 x the size of Krakatoa). There is a lot of geothermal activity here.

We drove out of town to a dam on the river where we boarded the riverboat and met the captain Dave, who with the ease that comes with long experience, simultaneously steered the boat (while facing backwards), gave a great commentary, and brewed the tea, all at the same time.

The river winds up past a hugh...

From Paihia, we had another long drive down to Lake Taupo.

We had planned to break the Journey in Hamilton. NZ’s fourth biggest city.

It is about the same size as Cambridge and shares some other things in common…

Hamilton is a bid odd, it has lovely suburbs and parks, but the city centre is a bit rough and run-down.

We decided to eat in a busy Turkish restaurant close to the hotel, and we’re rewarded with a great meal.

The next day, we set out early for Taupo, and decided to take a short diversion to investigate Cambridge NZ.

Cambridge is a pretty little town, decidedly up- market and the centre of the NZ horse racing industry.

Cambridge is very proud of its name…

It crops up everywhere…

After my angling success, we took two bags on filleted king fish and snapper along to the restaurant on the pier at Paihia and asked the manager if he could cook my catch for our dinner that evening.

We had far more fish than we could possibly eat, so we asked if he could cook two portions for us and keep what was left for himself.

We booked a table for seven-thirty and wandered off for a long walk along the beach in the sunshine.

We returned later for dinner, to discover that the fresh duty manager could find no record of our booking and was unaware of the discussion concerning our fish. However, he found our bags of fish in the fridge, and despite the restaurant being full, soon made-up a table for us in the corner.

Morna and I enjoyed a glass of two of Sav, while we waited for our meals to be cooked.

Before too long, the waiters delivered to our table three huge plates of fish...

My bait and sinker hit the sea bed; I wound the tackle eleven turns off the bottom and set the drag on the reel to its lowest setting.

Nibble, nibble, then bang - a large Yellowtail Kingfish took the bait.

The rod tip bent double and the fish nose-dived for the bottom. I snapped the drag on the line to its highest setting and held firm, using all my strength to prevent the fish from getting any closer to the bottom. As the fish eased-off a little, I dropped the tip of the rod and reeled in a few feet of line, before heaving hard on the rod again.

Darren, the boat skipper, stared yelling for me to reel the fish in harder and faster. Easier said than done.

After a few minutes of hauling, suddenly the rod stopped jerking to be replaced with huge dead-weight, and the rod started to release line and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

“Shark’s got your fish” yelled Darren. “You...

We planned a couple of days sunning ourselves on the beach in Paihia, but there were a couple of problems with this plan: firstly, the weather forecast was for thick cloud and occasional rain, and secondly, lounging on the beach is something that they just don’t do here.

Paihia has nice beaches, but no sun loungers, umbrellas or sun-seekers. The shops, don’t sell beach towels, buckets, spades or rubber rings.

It is Sunday today, and one other serious difference from back home - not one restaurant in the town has Sunday roast on the menu.

So, we changed our plans and took the ferry across the bay to the town of Russell.

An island in the Bay of Islands

Russell is small but perfectly formed. The town is strung out around a small bay - you can walk it from end to end in ten minutes, every building is beautiful and there are plenty of lovely coffee shops and restaurants.

The jetty at...