After collecting the truck from the docks at Auckland, we stopped at Orewa Beach just north of The city for five days while we settled into life in the truck. Because of delay in finishing the vehicle we had no time to test it out and fix snags before it left the UK. We discovered that the fridge did not work and that a window leaked – both were fixed in a day. We enjoyed the 5km long beach despite the mix of sun and rain.
We next moved north to Whangarei….
and then on to Tutukaka where I spent a day diving a Poor Knights Island….
and then north again to the Bay of Islands where we camped one night at Russell close to the site of the first capital fo New Zealand….
before moving to Paihia and a day’s diving on the wreck of the Rainbow Warrior which was towed offshore and scuttled to form a man-made reef after the Greenpeace ship had been torpedoed by French secret agents.
Continued north up the ‘pan-handle’ to Cape Reinga at the northern tip of New Zealand. 
On the way back, we stopped for two nights at Houhora Heads and then headed via Kaitaia down the west coast of the North Island taking the ferry to Rawene; a small town settled in the 1860s which still has many of its original old wooden houses. Passed through the Waipoura Forest; a small area of native forest that is still standing; complete with a number of giant Kauri trees.
Spent longer than we intended at the ‘Kauri Museum’ at Matakohe which focuses on the role that the eponymous tree played in the first century of settlement of the North Island when, in addition to the logging industry, gum diggers, many from the Balkans, probed the boggy ground for ancient Kauri gum which was exported to make high quality varnish and linoleum.
Also visited a gannet colony at Muriwai Beach.
