Doc describes the Tongariro Northern Circuit as a “journey through dramatic volcanic landscapes, glacial valleys, native beech forest, alpine meadows and emerald coloured lakes” and I second this description. This walk has it all, and it is all breathtakingly good. We completed the circuit in 3 days and 2 nights, but you can also take 4 days and 3 nights, staying in huts each night. The path winds its way past Mt Tongariro and Mt Ngauruhoe in the heart of the Tongariro National Park – New Zealand’s first National Park.

We had a little set back this morning, leaving some of our food in the bus fridge resulting a 40-minute round trip back to the bus in retrieval! The first day takes you through alpine meadows to the first hut and onto the Tongariro Crossing. Making up for our set back, we reached the hut a bare two hours in. Deciding to push onto the next hut, we soon found ourselves slugging our way up devil’s staircase. The views were spectacular – Mt Taranaki was on full display in the distance behind us, and Ngauruhoe / Mt Doom was right there in front of us. It didn’t take long before we had escaped the alpine tussock and were onto the volcanic rock.

Attempting to summit Ngauruhoe, a lack of time and fitness ended the dream around a third of the way up. At the beginning, it wasn’t too hard going but before we knew it we were on shingle and for every two steps up, we’d be going back a step. Safety officer Benny had set us a turnaround time – and when we reached it, we’d head back down. Reaching that time came before we were ready to turn around, but we knew at our current rate, we’d have at least another hour or two to go, despite it looking like we were oh so close to the peak. After a few grumbles and moans, disappointed in our lack of progress, we headed back to our packs for continue the journey to the next hut.
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Reaching the highest point on the crossing at dusk, without a single person in sight – would have to be the highlight of the hike. It was magical and dreamy; the emerald lakes were in the foreground and red crater just to our right. Taking some time to absorb what was in front of us, an overwhelming sense of freedom swept over me. Here we where doing what we wanted, when we wanted. Life couldn’t get much better than this. 

If I was to imagine what walking on mars was like, today would be just like it. The landscape was vast; rocks scattered all over – it almost didn’t look real. Pushing the pace to avoid the incoming tornado, the incoming tornado was only ever that. Thankfully! The hut tonight was huge, and pretty full. There was an awesome Doc Warden looking after the place who shared some incredible stories of the National Parks history.

The last day was straight forward back to the car to complete the circuit, via a track on the side to Tama lakes. We will definitely be back in this area, maybe to complete the around the mountain track in winter. 

​The fire raged with might, lighting up the Wanaka hillside from the early morning darkness. Unlike the news articles the night before reporting the fire was out, seeing the yellow hillside from the car, it was obvious – Mt Roy was well and truly alight. Firefighters had the bottom under control, however the top was roaring. Working tirelessly through the night to keep the blaze under control, biding time until first light for the choppers to begin. They then had the arduous task of dropping monsoon buckets over and over and over until the fire was out. Burning spectacularly, there was no possible way she would be touched today by any amateur walkers. We now were 40 minutes away from Mt Isthmus (thanks Mr Fireman for Plan B) with no fuel and had no real idea what Plan B entailed.

​Charging up the mountain (mainly because Benny was droning us and we wanted to appear fit), the excitement and glee of the view outweighed any pain the 1200m climb brought. Reaching the saddle, we began the final ascent along the ridge to the summit, with views of Lake Hawea on one side and Lake Wanaka on the other. Sitting on top of Isthmus, eating what Benny describes as a ‘man sandwich’ – a sandwich filled with copious amounts of butter and hazelnut butter, a sense of overwhelming gratitude flows over me. Gratitude for the beautiful surroundings of our home country, and gratitude for our current lifestyle.

The soaring sun had us running down Isthmus in a desperate bid for shade – our only way of avoiding the intense summer heat was to reach the patches of forest near the beginning of the track. The water remained still with not a single ripple showing. Our heavy footsteps disturbing the dusty ground, sending plumes of dust swirling into the air - my white singlet ending up a new shade of white called brown! Reaching the bottom brought a mixture of relief and triumph. Relief that I wasn’t going to shrivel up on the spot, dehydrated by the devastating heat, and triumph for the beauty we had just experienced.
 
*Mt Isthmus is nestled between Lake Hawea and Lake Wanaka, offering spectacular views of both lakes from 1700m.
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“Campfire nights are what dreams are made of”
 
The campfire raging from the black sand beneath it, the sun setting in the distance, the water glistening, dogs exploring in the bush surrounding us, the crackling of the campfire music to our ears; there we were, living the campfire dream.          

Red Rocks lying at the bottom of the North Island on Wellington’s rugged south coast, sits among a Marine Reserve. The coastline pristine, with a backdrop of dry craggy hills; the water a deep blue, with patches of white as it hits the shoreline. An epic spot for four-wheel driving, diving, kayak fishing, swimming, dog walking, motorbiking and mountain biking. Every adventurer’s dream!
 
Devil’s Gate is the knarly section of the four-wheel driving track, guaranteed to give you sticky palms and a turning tummy, yet at the same time is achievable if you take the right line! Benny acing it with Rob’s assistance spluttering through the walkie talkie. Taking the four-wheel drive track means you get off the beaten track and round to secluded bays, and the sunset is worth the extra effort. 

Sweating in the sweltering heat, the Wellington wind as we knew it made no appearance at all. Cooling off wasn’t an issue – the water ‘ball shrinking’, leaving you feeling instantly refreshed. Our one night soon turned into two as the stunning days and nights were too good to leave. The South Island in the distance looking so clear, seeming only a few kilometres away. Chugging past at regular intervals, the ferries provided a gentle reminder of the formidable barrier that stood between the two beautiful islands. 
 
As the sun went down, the fire became bright and vivid, flickering in the moonlight. Lazing around the dancing blaze, eating marshmallows toasted to perfection - charcoaled on the outside and melted to perfection on the inside. Ella adding value and proving her worthiness since way back, rescued the beers from the sea-chilly bin, after the tide came in and swept them away. Although it completely confused her as to why people where not throwing her sticks she’d found, but instead were drinking them! 

​Latest addition to the family - the Mac attack. Part Piranha part Chocolate Lab. 

This little guy is a bundle of joy. Lucky is he is cute because he is a complete menace. 

Definitely a 10 / 10

Seeing the sunrise over Rangitoto Island from Takapuna beach is beautiful. This was on a crisp-clear Autumn morning, and well worth the early rise for. 

Standard ops from Ella, wanting you to throw her stick and not the slightest bit bothered by the freezing water! 
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If you're keen to be a real North Shore local, trat yourself to a coffee and cronut from Takapuna Beach Store Cafe.  
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This is Rob's famous creation. Only taking 30 minutes to make and being bloody delicious, she goes down a teat. 

You will need:
- mince patties, homemade or bought, whatever you please
- burger buns
- bacon 
- avo
- hash browns
- lettuce
- cheese
- tomato
- pinapple
- aoli
- bbq sauce 

​Consider yourselves the chosen ones to be let in on Rob's secret recipe.

Where every man and boy are guaranteed a top time. In our case - 3 hours of fun and laughs. 
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The Rere rockslide is located 45 minutes west of Gisborne on the Wharekopae River. One must endure 60m of sheer fear before reaching the bottom where you are graced by a pool cold enough it's sure to give you goosebumps.

"The engine brakes don't work but you don't need them anyway" Quote, unquote from the previous owners. Classic kiwi 'she'll be right' behaviour! In hindsight, we should have got them fixed before we went on our first trip, but there is nothing like an oil explosion, locking up the back wheels and some bad weather to make this realisation! 

With music blaring, and a few beers cracked, we were all fizzing with excitement. How could we not be? We were on the road in Izzy heading for Mahia. 
"Ahhhhh bro you need to pull over ASAP", stutters through the walkie talkie from Speed who is following in his car. 
Straight panic rings though us, we're a mere two hours in and we're broken already! ​

 
A quick trip to Z to purchase some rags and meths, followed by a little bit of cleaning in the rain soon sorted things out. ​
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Priorities. Since picking up our newest member of the family - Izzy, we have been scheming and dreaming of how we are going to make her our own. I'm thinking of dream catchers hanging from the ceilings, a hammock and hippy furniture coverings, while Benny is thinking of how to get the bus battery to charge to the house batteries and putting in a inverter which would allow us to access the 240V all the time. Only a subtle difference there! But before we did any of that we settled on what we thought is priority, which came to: hitting up Kmart for essential items such as plates and cups etc. and purchasing a second gas bottle. Seems simple. 

A second gas bottle gives us peace of mind as if we were to run out of gas, it would mean losing the fridge / freezer, and hot water. Plus we would have to get to a local town ASAP to refill. Hot water - not essential, but the fridge / freezer wouldn't be ideal when they are filled with delicious food. Seems simple still.

​Packing day. We are all at loading stations, packing up the bus to head away .... quote Benny. "Um there is nowhere to put this gas bottle, I think we will put it on the roof."  No longer seems simple. At this point, Benny is on the roof of the bus with the gas bottle. I've headed straight to the worst conclusion, imagining this gas bottle falling off the roof, going straight through the car behind's windscreen and killing whoever is in the front seat of that car. Wooh! Happy holidays. Thankfully this option was ruled out, and the situation solved with a bit of old fashion Kiwi ingenunity and thinking on the spot.  Now we have a beautiful purpose built little spot for our second gas bottle to sit, and it works just fine. Only catch is it is in the radiator compartment; time will tell how this works out for us!

We got to reep the rewards of our second gas bottle and all that hard installation work when we had just parked up for the night at Lake Waikeremoana, about 50km into a 105km gravel road (that's another story) and we ran out of gas. Simple. Change over the gas bottles and boom we have gas again. Success. And oh so simple.