After the storm we had a nice day, we started with a walk around the forest and then we decided to spend the day in the Pūkaha National Wildlife Centre. It’s a charity that works with endangered bird species to reintroduce them to their natural environment. We saw a lot of different native birds that we had never seen before including the takahē (that looks like a chunky pūkeko), kākā (native parrot) and kākāriki (native parakeet). We also had a talk with the kiwi caretaker and it’s really cool the work they do to try to recover the species - the talk ended with a gender reveal for the two last kiwi eggs that hatched! They really need some female kiwi but both were males.

Heather was working at the wildlife centre and she offered us to park at their place for the night, that was really nice, so we went for it! Next day we drove to Castlepoint and spent some time with her and the dogs - Alix loved Spice, Beau and baby Jed - then walked to the lighthouse and went up to the top of the castle rock.

In the morning we decided to go for an adventure - before sunrise at low tide to find the hidden cave under the lighthouse. But the path was guarded by seals! We woke up a few of them but decided to turn back since we would probably loose the fight - and also the tide was rising again. The secret will keep uncovered, until the next time.

And we are now in Wellington! We traveled through the whole island so we will try to stay around for a couple of months. It looks like a really cool city.

After leaving Gisborne we spent a slow day at Māhia peninsula - we drove around, climbed a small mountain and found a sleepy seal in the rocks close to the sea. We spent the night close by, and made another fire to finish the marshmallows.

Next day we started to drive our way to Napier. We stopped in Wairoa and found a really cool clay artist that opened a shop there not so long ago - we had an interesting chat talked about how he was supposed to go to Wellington to try to work in Weta, but in the end life went another way and became surfer and bus/truck driver. Now he was back to sculpting. All the sculptures were really cool, detailed and transporting you to their own universe.

Napier was a really nice city, it’s beautiful to see all the Art Deco facades and buildings from the same year - it looked a bit like a movie set - but was really well taken care of in the city centre. We finally had non fried fish for dinner (and a delicious kumara mash with miso, rosemary and brown butter). The gardens are also really well taken care of, we could imagine how beautiful it will be in Spring.

We drove out of Napier and went to do some hiking at Te Mata - might be unrelated but we saw a few things there that could kill you - it was really cool landscape not too far from town. We quickly passed by Havelock North and Hastings and then continue the road.

Weather was not really nice… so we arrived to the campsite in the middle of nowhere, dark, raining and with 100kmh wind gusts - it was fun though the van was shaking a lot.

We left Matata and started driving while listening 96.9 Tumeke FM and discovering Māori songs. First we passed by Whakatāne and enjoyed the views from the Kohi Point, which was and old Pā (village / fortress), now with views to the sea and Whakatāne. After that we drove through the beautiful wetlands finishing the day in Ōpōtiki before officially starting the SH35 Road.

SH35 is the popular route to drive the north of the east of the North Island, it’s a winding road with very good views and vibes. The first hour or two we had views to the White Island - Whakaari, a volcano island with a permanent white cloud on top. The rest of the road we had nice view on beaches, forest, sheep, horses and other farm animals.

We saw a statue of a fish on the road and stopped to have a closer look - the owner of the house close by came to explain us that the statue was his and painted by his son in law, he wanted to tell the story of the kahawai fish and the Māori traditions and beliefs about it - how they come in with the waves and after the season two big waves come in to clean the ocean.

The next stop was Waihau Bay general store - the owner was really nice (you might notice a pattern here) and told us about the film Boy from Taika Waititi. It was filmed in the store and some more places around in the area - we saw the movie that night and was a beautiful movie, really cool to see the same places + a Michael Jackson Zombie Poi E Haka bonus scene.

We finished the day at Lottin Point, a camping spot at the end of a gravel road where we could try some fishing, lit a fire and see the stars, really remote and magical. A good place for Alix to turn 28! 🎉

We spent the next couple of days driving, stopping at churches, eating pies, walking long wharf ruins and waking up with beautiful sunrises. We also found a dog in the road, went to the closest house to be told it was normal that this dog was in the middle of the road - back country I guess!

Arrived in Gisborne, the town of the sun - it’s where the sun rises first in the world! - and we saw a baby seal in the beach in the morning! We walked to Wainui lighthouse ruins in Tuaheni Point on a nice low tide beach walk. We met Cy in the afternoon, it was so nice to meet in real life! We got a bunch of recommendations and lots of things to see in the South Island can’t wait to go. We also met Julia by chance - she’s starting mandarine picking in Gisborne … small country.

After Hobbiton we spent a couple of nights near Tauranga, saw Quentin and Léa for the last round of Irish pub in Mount Manganui, and then went to Matata.

We spent a week in Matata: relaxing times, thinking what to do over winter, working in our projects, beaching and going to the local café. Good weather, nice sunsets and clear nights!

We took the “Forgotten World Highway” north, going towards Hamilton. Both highways going north were supposed to be very beautiful roads, so we decided to do both. There was nothing really in the way, we did a few viewpoints and old tunnels. After almost finishing the forgotten one we joined the coast through a secondary road that was even cooler, very much in the back country and we were on our own.

We arrived to the elephant rock and three sisters with low tide and a beautiful sunset, we walked through the mud to see the rocks and then back to the van to see the sunset, pretty good end of the day.

The next stop before Hamilton was Waitomo Caves, we thought it was only gonna be the main cave attraction but we found so much more - it’s a beautiful forest area where there are so many hidden caves. We did a couple of walks and the highlights were the natural bridge (looks like it’s going to collapse any time) and the night walk where we saw so many glow worms in the cave and the forest, felt like a magical walk.

We arrived in Hamilton and met Inés - Mario’s friend who is also doing the working holiday visa! We went for lunch and ice cream, and then walked around the river, it was nice to meet her maybe we cross paths again. Hamilton gardens are the main attraction and they are really cool concept - every garden is themed so you can see a lot of different gardens through time and space.

Before the Hobbiton day we spent a couple of rainy days and nights in the area, went to another cheese factory (the best one until now! over the moon) and saw the timber museum in Putāruru.

This post comes with soundtrack. We hit the road from Whanganui and started playing the Slacks and some other local music - we loved theSlacks and the variety of the music from Bob Dylan to the Arctic Monkeys and a few things in between. At some point we saw Mount Taranaki popping between clouds and it’s majestic, coming out of nowhere. We also bought 1.5kg of parmesan cheese in the factory in Eltham.

We drove to one of the car parks inside the natural park, and did a couple of walks before night - the Kapuni loop and Wilkies pools track (with cold plunge included!) - the forest was looking ancient and wise, with vines and lichen around the trees, and their roots were creating the path steps. The next day we did a longer walk around with more views of Taranaki and the circle of nature around.

We drove to New Plymouth through the surf highway and when we arrived we climbed the Paritutu rock to see the amazing views from the top. New Plymouth has really good cafes, breweries and restaurants so we tried a few! We also did the two bigger local museums. It was a nice stay.

We only had time for a last walk around Taranaki before moving on with what’s coming next - we’re on the way to Hobbiton!

After spending the night in Ohakune’s campsite we went up to see another Gollum’s pool (not sure how many Gollums pools are in this country) and then down to check out the town. They had good mead and beer breweries but the jewel of the crown was the transfer and recycling centre - a second hand shop with thousands of things that people would bring to the trash or donations. We found a winter beanie, gloves, my favourite coffee cup, plates, hooks, a coat and the manual for Age of Empires II. Very cool shop.

We decided to stay for a couple of nights not too far away, in the Sanctuary Farm, where Matt and Kim live with their family in a restored countryside school. It’s such a magical place, surrounded by animals (some farm some pets and some rescued) - Mister, the horse, came to see us every morning, and Alix was helping feeding the goat and chicken. Matt drove us around with the 4wd to see cool views of the environment and the farms. The last day Alix did a horse riding session for Mister to keep comfortable around humans. We had a fireplace running every night and clear skies to see the stars.

When we left the farm we took a detour on the Whanganui river road to Whanganui town. Very curvy road but surrounded by nature and following the river, roadtrip vibes. Whanganui is an interesting town - feels like it got stuck in time a few years ago, western style old colonial buildings, billboards from 50 years ago, pc shops… and a very artistic community, art galleries and workshops. We went for a walk around and saw a few galleries and museums - after dinner we went to the local pub, Porridge Watson, where we meet a bunch of friendly locals while listening to live jazz music. We went for a small beer and ended up with free piña coladas from Tony - and we met Harry, Dennis and Kirk (Who worked on the Lord of the Rings! and makes awesome sculptures).

The last day we went to see Susan, a contact from Alix, sister of a coworker from London - she invited us to have some tea in her place, it was lovely to meet her. To finish the day we went to the bird sanctuary Bushy Park - a manor house surrounded by bush where they reintroduce endangered bird species. We saw saddleback, stitchbird, black robin silvereye and kererū.

Going towards Taranaki Maunga 🗻

On the way to Mordor and the Mount Doom - in real life Tongariro and Mount Ngāruhoe. It was a real life Lord of the Rings experience. We passed by Taupō but we didn’t really stopped much - we wanted to arrive in Tongariro with good weather and it was worth it!

The Tongariro crossing is a really beautiful hike, surrounded by volcanic rocks it looks like a martian landscape. We had a really clear day so we could see everything - even Taranaki in the distance.

Better to check the pictures! 🌋

We left Te Puke sad to say goodbye but happy to continue traveling. We stopped in Okere falls on the way - they have a nice beer shop and roast their own coffee (it’s really good!) - and we did the short walk.

We stayed in Lake Okareka campsite for most of the days. It’s a nice campsite next to the lake and not too far from anything around Rotorua. We didn’t plan to stay for this many nights but we didn’t plan someone was finally fixing our van!

Rotorua’s volcanic landscape is beautiful and impressive, but virtually everything is paid and expensive… We started with Te Puia, the Maori arts and crafts school for wood carving, jewellery and fabric + geothermal walk and geyser + kiwi conservation centre where we saw kiwis walking as mammals, they are cute. At the end of the day we couldn’t start our van…We called our insurance and it turned out the battery was flat. Vince - our lifesaver - listened to the noise (the one that was driving us crazy and no one managed to fix) and told us they will fix it … turns out they did! Two days later.

The next day the battery was flat again, but we were lucky we met Flora and she helped us out and jumpstarted the van - we could spend some time together in the evening and listen to her New Zealand adventures and hunting stories. With the van running we went straight to the shop and bought a jumpstarter with battery.

The next day the battery was flat again but we had our brand new toy so we could go to the workshop! We went for a walk in Rotorua’s city centre. The garage couldn’t fix everything in the day but they offered for us to sleep in the workshop :D He even let me use the workshop and some leftover materials to build my own custom tray for the van while they finished the next day.

We stayed a few more days in Rotorua to do some of the things we actually planned to do. First we went one day to hell’s gate to do the mud baths and walk - it was fun and smelly! The next day we did mountain bike in the redwoods forest - and it was harder than we thought so to compensate we went to the forest bathtubs, benefits of being in the geothermal tourist town.

We met Remi for dinner at the campsite, he’s going back to kiwitown 🥝

The last day was only hot baths in different places: kerosene creek is a hot river with a waterfall, pretty cool even though it stinks - hot and cold is a place where the hot river meets the cold one and it feels quite odd to feel where the water mixes! We finished the day in the Waikite Valley Thermal Pools which is also a very nice campsite so two for one! They have different pools from hot to hottest, really nice and relaxing.

It’s been a packed week… We’ll be moving south next, planning to walk the Tongariro crossing towards Mordor.

Kiwipicking is the first job we get in New Zealand. We’ve heard different things about it before: some people say you can make a lot of money, other people that is a bit of a scam, and even some people that didn’t last more than two days.

We wanted to try a physical job because we’ve always worked in an office environment in front of a screen. So we didn’t really know how was to feel physically tired after work. We know now.

Picking is quite demanding, especially in the first days, after we kind of got used to it and it was easier to do. The pay is not bad, but the shifts are not really reliable, so we didn’t know how much we would have to work each day. In the end, even if we would work just a few hours a day, it was exhausting as if we were working the full day.

It was a really good experience though, and we are so happy we took the opportunity to live it. We had such a good team, people we could spend some time with, know them better and become friends. Surrounded by nice people everything feels good: Team Alpha™️ Neele, Elise, Louis and Remi our roommates at the campsite - Remi, Axel and Julia the bosses and original members - Matias, JJ, Franklin and Charles our neighbours - Quentin and Léa joined for the last orchard - Álvaro the tractor driver.

We spent some time out of the orchard together going to the beach, cinema, playing volley, frisbee, darts and pool, doing bbq’s, singing vamos a la playa and having good times together.

Alix planned my birthday party, Matias made a cheesecake and everyone showed up and sang cumpleaños feliz in Spanish. Thanks everyone!

Memories that will stay with us forever - hope we see you guys again ❤️

As Leo would say:

Here’s the plan for tomorrow…

🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝

Back to Auckland to finish the maintenance, and we made it! Kōruru has a new roof rack, new solar panel, new battery and awning. It works so well, we are ready for off grid travel.

We camped in Ambury Farm, surrounded by animals and Alix couldn’t be happier. We found a job in Kiwipicking so we need to travel to the Bay of Plenty next up.

We had to wait for a couple of days before the roof rack was installed so we went to Muriwai for a short trip. Surf beach (we still haven’t surfed but it’s on the list) with black sand.

And we made it on time to see the gannett colony! Very interesting how nature works, they breed here every year, then go travel and come back for next season.

Back to Auckland for maintenance. We picked up our new mattress and went around to ask for a quote to get a roof rack installed. Our idea was to get a new lithium battery, a new solar panel in the roof rack and an awning.

We met Peter in the roof rack centre and went for it. He told us he was doing some volunteer work in a cottage close by and we were welcome to help if we wanted, so we slept close by and the next day we went to help him do some maintenance in the cottage. It was really fun and nice to spend some time with Peter, John and Mark.

It was a bit rainy but not too much. Lucky we got our raincoats though.

We started the day walking the tunnels in Broken Hills. We didn’t think about it, but when we reached the first small tunnel we looked up and it was full of GIANT wetas (not sure if they were actually the giant ones, but they did look big) so we put our raincoat on just in case and passed by the tunnel. Collins drive is the longest one, around 500m of tunnel - luckily that one didn’t have wetas but we found some wild glowworms :D

We drove to Waihi’s free camping spot and we met a few new friends there: Oliver, Giacopo and Katerina. We didn’t plan to stay another night but Oliver invited us to a concert in town next day so we went for it, will drive back to Auckland next day.

We did the Karangahake walk in the morning, just to do all the tunnels in the area. It was cool but part of it was closed… We went to the concert and had some mexican food at night, it was fun! Alix drew the band in a napkin and they were gonna frame it 👩🏻‍🎨.

We planned to go back towards Kaueranga river on the other side, to walk the tunnels at Broken Hills. But first we wanted to go to the Cathedral Cove beach and Hot Water beach. When we arrived to the Cathedral Cove village it was raining like crazy so we skipped it.

We met a few Spanish friends in a cafe and decided to drive together to Hot Water beach - even if it’s rainy we can warm up. The water was literally boiling and you can see the bubbles - the way to regulate the temperature was mixing the hot spring with the sea water - advanced science.

We drove down and passed by Mount Paku for lunch, to finish at Broken Hills.

We used the road to go back this time. Not too busy day - we went for a walk and got some food on new chums beach, drove to Whitianga and had a nice irish beer there. We camped in the town even if it was in the middle of the town the free camp was quite nice!

We wanted to go up towards Coromandel town. The road was really nice next to the sea and we stopped by in the oyster company and had some mussels for lunch.

Coromandel town looks like we are in a western, it’s nice vibes - we had coffee in Weta and refilled some beers in the local brewery.

When going up to the campsite we decided to take a really daunting road, that got a bit damaged after the rain, but still alive.

The campsite was nice so we stayed a couple of chill days - I made some Kauri locks for the van with the bits I found before, and Alix did some jewelery from a piece of Kauri resin she found in a hike!

We passed by Auckland and we ordered a new mattress for the van. They need a week or so to get it ready so we decide to run away towards Coromandel.

When we arrive in Coromandel we had our worst enemy waiting for us: orange alert for rain and wind.

The idea was to do the Pinnacles walk so we camped in one of the Kaueranga campsites, but the weather was bad so we canceled and went down to Thames. We spent some rainy days there waiting for the good weather.

Once we had good weather we managed to go up the Pinnacles and it was so nice and sunny. Really good views from the top and a refreshing forest walk. The only problem is that we had to cross the overflown river just before going back to the car park - it was wet. But we took fish and chips in the marina to compensate, the best ones for now!

We don’t really want to go pass by Auckland but we have to… Roadtrip day stopping by a couple of places and finding a free camping in Hibiscus Coast.

We wanted to slowly go towards Auckland to buy some stuff for the van, so we decided to stop back in Waipu, see some of the missing things and take a hot shower in the Uretiti beach campsite.

We also went back to McLeods for a nice beer :D

We woke up early in the morning to go up to Magic Rock - part of the private hikes of the campsite. We had really cool views, very foggy and finished above the clouds.

After that we did a very nice vibes roadtrip day, stopping by Rawene for laundry and lunch, through a couple of beach towns and finally at the Tāne Mahuta (one of the sacred kauri trees) that looked ancient and wise.

We finished the day in the Trounson forest park where we camped for two nights. The second day we went to the very blue lake Taharoa but didn’t take any cool pictures.

We also stopped in a kauri shop where I bought some spare kauri bits - I have plans to make something for the van :D

We didn’t dare to drive the van in the 90 miles beach, sadly. The beach is officially a highway so we saw a couple of people driving through! We took some shells there so we had a nice dinner.

Just driving back south, and ended up in a campsite with some cool hikes around.

Let’s go to the very top of New Zealand!

We left Maitai in the morning and drove all the way up, walked around Cape Reinga. It was really feeling like the end of the world and cool to see where the oceans meet. We walked down the endless beach and we were alone, just us and tuatuas. Really cool to see the micro environments in the sand, looking like miniature worlds.

After we drove down to the giant sand dunes that were really impressive, we could see the sand transforming into rocks.

We ended the day in a campsite in 90 miles beach, hosted by a cool german lady.

We continued our way up and discovered our first spotted giant Kauri tree on the way. It’s crazy to imagine that some time ago there were so many Kauri trees, impressive.

We ended up staying a couple of nights in Maitai bay campsite, since it was a nice one and we were not in a rush. It was a chill day: running and swimming on the beach, walk some paths close by and work on our personal projects.

We visited the longest foot bridge in the south hemisphere, that was built to allow kids to go faster to school on the other side of the river/sea. After that in the town we found the best general store in the universe + fm radio station and café. Really good vibes!

We drove up to Haruru falls and stayed in a nice campsite for a couple of nights. Michael, the owner of the campsite sent us on a quest to Russell and find out how many bullet holes did the church have and why, we will never know the real answer.

We saw the treaty grounds where New Zealand was born and the villages close by, really nice area to be around and explore!

We also went to a glowworm cave close by, it’s fascinating to see how the worms make constellations. We met some friends there that we met again in Karikeri and again in Russel, we were being followed.

What we didn’t think about was the weather and it turned out to be quite rainy, so we did a wet hike :D it was cool anyways with good views that could’ve been better. Then we continued going north.

Following Todd’s recommendation we did the coastal path in the morning, it was foggy and grey but it was a nice walk - the walk was developed by one of the neighbours and many people with private land next to the beach agreed on having a public path open for everyone to enjoy!

We left Waipu and decided to drive and go hike to the mountain we saw from Uretiti beach. This will be our first freedom camping spot and it was really nice one!

Our first trip in New Zealand. We started in Waipu and stayed a few days in Uretiti beach campsite (with hot water showers! we will discover after how exclusive this is). We had sun and good weather, so we went to explore around :)

Dramatic skies, endless beaches, pancake rocks and nice forest areas.

Waipu is a small town with scottish heritage - we even had a Caledonian Park as we used to in London! - and everyone is really nice there.

We met Todd in the garage and he recommended so many walks around and also told us how to cook the shells we could find in the beach. McLeods brewery had really good beers and pizzas.

We arrived in Auckland looking forward for our adventure! We explored the city, went crazy with the Weta experience and discovered how good sushi and pies are in New Zealand.

We visited the lantern festival for the lunar new year, it was really cool, with fireworks included and a lot of chinese food. We also walked a lot of nature reserves in Auckland, where we started discovering new birds (we loved the Tūī’s song) trees and plants.

While looking for buying our van we soon wanted to leave Auckland to explore the country, but we had to wait until Kōruru -that’s our van!- arrived. We saw a few vans in the car fair on Sundays and looking on Facebook until we finally found a nice grey Toyota Hiace LWB and High Roof model from 1998 - as old as Alix.

We had a list of requirements for the van that we totally dumped. We went for the one we loved and the one in the budget :D no shower, not too much water, only portable solar panel, petrol and old, but it’s our van and we love it - we will upgrade a few things!

Next stop Northlands.