Meet our van “Britzie”, which is going to be our home for the next three weeks. We got it today and made our way out of the city. It’s old, very thirsty, only has manual window winder (haven’t seen them for a while!), and see-saws a lot on the road.

But at least it has air conditioning and power assisted steering. And it got us a ten percent discount on our first night’s stay: “Oh, you’ve got one of these Britzs? I’ll give you a ten percent discount then”, so the lady at the reception when she saw our vehicle. Out of pity, we think.

We are going to travel the north Island, not sure if we’re going to make it to the south Island yet. It’s supposed to be more beautiful than the north, so we’ve been told. Well, we’ll see. On our list so far: Coromandel peninsula, take a dip in Rotorua’s natural hot pools, see the Shire in Hobbiton, hike the Alpine Crossing in Tongariro National Park (and catch a glimpse at real Mount Doom), see Waitomo Caves, relax at Lake Taupo, drive the Forgotten Highway between Taumarunui and Stratford.

Depending on the time we’ve got left, we might take the ferry south to see Mount Cook, Abel Tasman, and/or spot dolphins in Kaikoura.