Our Shoes Full of Feet

After spending the past month living in campervans in the middle of Australia and New Zealand’s winter, we were more than ready for a bit of warm weather, rest and relaxation!  We spent a lot of our time in Fiji taking it easy in our resort; relaxing on double bed sun loungers by the pool, sunbathing, swimming and reading. We also explored Nadi town centre, visited Sri Siva Subramaniya temple and had our first experience of Korean BBQ. Me exploring Nadi Me relaxing at our resort Me at Sri Siva Subraminya temple Nick cooking us up a Korean BBQ storm However, we couldn’t go to Fiji without visiting some of the islands. During our stay, we visited Robinson Crusoe Island and Malamala Beach Club, where we had two of the most amazing days. Robinson Crusoe Island Robinson Crusoe Island was everything you could want from a Fijian island: white sands, clear waters and wonderful hospitality. And despite what Daniel Defoe would have you believe, there wasn’...

After coming ashore on the South Island, we drove from Picton down to Kaikoura. During this journey, we got to see a colony of New Zealand fur seals, just relaxing on the rocks by the side of the road! We spent our first night on the South Island free camping outside an Irish pub. The following morning, we walked along its pebbly beaches and the Kaikoura Peninsula Walkway, hoping to find more seals.  Kaikoura beach We managed to find loads of fur seals at Point Kean, where they lazed on the pavements and growled at us like dogs if we got too close. New Zealand fur seals Nick looking for seals at Point Kean After spending some time with the seals, we drove through the mountains to a town called Springfield (complete with giant pink doughnut!) The drive offered some wonderful views over New Zealand, however, the narrow winding roads and sheer drops made the views quite hard to appreciate from the passenger seat of a large campervan! The following day, we...

As soon as we picked up the campervan and got on the road in Auckland, I knew that I was going to like New Zealand. Surprisingly, it actually reminds me very much of England, but with more impressive mountains, lakes and general scenic views. (Seriously, this whole country looks like a desktop background.) The people of New Zealand are so friendly and welcoming and it has such a homely feel about it whilst at once being otherworldly in its beauty. Being in this country is like one big breath of fresh air. Apart from when you’re in Rotorua, which, whilst being my favourite place on the North Island, is more like a breath of rotten eggs. We’ll come back to that later. New Zealand (North Island) road trip views! Our first day in New Zealand was spent exploring Auckland city centre.  The next day, we drove down to Waitamo where we visited the Waitamo Glowworm Caves. The caves were very impressive but, unfortunately, you are unable to take any photographs whilst on the tour. ...