The accommodation

After a very early morning to catch a fairly early flight we arrived without any dramas to New Zealand. Now as there was three of us we decided that having to try and book accommodation might be a bit of a nightmare so instead we attacked the adventure in true travelling style. We hired a campervan!

As I was with my Mum and Dad I decided that only the best could do so I booked a four person, fully equipped kitchen plus toilet with shower giant monster! Which along with my Dad I was going to have to drive, lord help us all.

Once all picked up we headed to our first location, Hot Water Beach which as the name suggests is a beach which has hot water under it. Brilliant. The drive over there took about three hours (campervans are not the speediest of things) and Dad chose to drive the whole distance. Now whilst at first I thought I was maybe missing out by not leaping behind the wheel and zooming off I soon realised I had chosen right in letting him drive the first leg. I had never seen such winding roads before and to add to the excitement they were going up the side of a mountain as well.

We finally arrived at our first destination and proceeded to set up the campervan creating our own little home (bumping our heads in the process). As it was getting on to nearly nighttime we decided to have dinner and relax on the campsite. Now in true Craig fashion we were not the most prepared and lacked food to cook dinner. So heading to a very small shop we pulled together whatever we could find and knocked up a lovely chips, fish fingers and beans with little sausages in the mix - yep it was as nice as it sounds. Even the backpackers in the kitchen were looking at us with sympathy (that's when you know you have hit rock bottom in the food pool).

After a pretty comfy sleep, the next day we headed down to the hot water beach to see what it was all about. Well it turned out that we were too late and as the tide had come in we couldn't get across to dig up the sand and lay in it. Still got some lovely pictures though so not all was lost.

After heading back to the campervan it was soon time for me to take my turn behind the wheel and head off to the next location, back down the lovely turns and mountain side. All I can say is if I was going to have any issues driving they were soon going to be sorted out on that road.

You will be pleased to know we all arrived in one piece :o)

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