Freedom camping in New Zealand – The good, the bad and the ugly
One of the joys of travelling in the Kiwi Blog Bus in New Zealand is the ability to freedom camp in some of the most scenic spots you could imagine.

Ocean beach, Hawkes Bay
But on the other hand we are sometimes made to feel like criminals.
Freedom camping in New Zealand has received a lot of publicity over the last few years, unfortunately it’s not all good.
Read More…
Our bus takes us to op shop heaven and back
Thrift store, charity shop, recycled clothing store – call it what you will.
Here in New Zealand we call them op shops (which comes from opportunity shops) and.. I love them!
I’m listing this under the category Budget conscious for obvious reasons and I’m blogging about op shops mainly as LOTS of people have voted on my poll for “Ways to save money while travelling”. Read More…
How I almost lost my husband in Gisborne
For the past week I have been posting blogs about our trip this summer around the East Cape of New Zealand’s North Island.
I will finish off on this particular road trip with details of our visit to a Gisborne museum: The East Coast Museum of Technology.
As I’ve mentioned previously (see musings) we LOVE museums – of any kind.
We have seen many different varieties from London’s Natural History museum to the Louvre in Paris and Te Papa in Wellington.
We’ve visited several small museums run and owned by one devoted collector or another.
But we’ve never quite seen anything like the ECMOT. Read More…
and a belated Happy New Year … kiwi style
We were several days into our East Cape road trip when we reached Tokomaru Bay on 31st December 2011.
Travelling with two children, two dogs and my parents (in their own camper) we weren’t particularly looking for a parteeeeee spot for New Years Eve. Read More…
East Cape continued… Wonderful, Wet, Waipiro

I had read in some guide-book somewhere that Waipiro was a ghost town. Read More…
More East Cape capers
So we will continue…
It is late December 2011 and we are travelling around the East Cape of New Zealand in the Kiwi Blog Bus.
It is supposed to be our main summer holiday.
Sam has taken time off work.
The kids are on their school holidays.
My parents are visiting from the UK and are touring with us in their campervan.
And it is raining.
New Zealand sure knows how to do rain too. Read More…
Waihau: Boy, Rockpools and salty sea dogs
Approximately 1o0kms from Opotiki is Waihau Bay.
Waihau was used as a film location in one of my favourite New Zealand films; BOY. Read More…
Penguins and pews on the East Cape
From Opotiki we travelled north-east (ish) along the pohutakawa–lined, ocean hugging Pacific Highway.
The road passes through small settlements and towns.
Past brightly coloured primary schools and roadside veggie stalls. Read More…
East Cape beginnings and Opotiki
Over the next few days I am going to post about a trip we took this summer around the East Cape of New Zealand.
I have long wished to go on this journey.
The Pacific Highway from Whakatane round to Gisborne takes in one of North Island’s most isolated areas – rich in Maori heritage and spectacular rugged coastlines. Read More…
Think I need a bigger boat
In my earlier introduction to our travelling bus dogs, Jess and Pip, I mentioned about Jess’s love of kayaking.
I thought I would post some pictures of her latest kayak escapades and how it went down when we tried to introduce Pip to the family pastime.
Read More…




