The Coromandel Peninsula, Hamilton & Raglan

The Coromandel Peninsula

I'd taken a copy of the route guide from the girls that a travel agent had given us for free and the first suggested stop was a small sticky out bit of land, north east of Auckland, called the Coromandel Peninsula. Funnily enough the girls had poo-poo'd it as not being interesting so after spending a fortune on foodstuffs I headed straight for it, happy that I was doing something different to them.

It was a good move. The weather had brightened up and sure there was nothing to do there, but that's not all New Zealand has to offer - try the scenery for size too. Stunning, rolling green fields set on a backdrop of coastal edges or lakes as far as the eye can see; winding paths and roads up the hills that give fantastic views of the jagged landscape. I stayed at a place called Thames the first night but only after visiting Kennedy Bay on the north east of the peninsula, a very quiet and remote place which required me to take the van over a 15km gravel path to get to. In all honesty I doubt I was allowed to do that but hey I made it there and back and the van was still in one piece.

The following day, still full of beans at the start of my new adventure and inspired by the newly found sunshine, I decided to something utterly crazy - take the 6 hour trek to the Pinnacles, an activity on the 'Must-do top 100 things for Kiwis' list. Okay, hardly a claim to fame but if ever I was going to climb a mountain it might as well be today. I packed a bottle of water and some food in my rucksack and set off at 11am, in a little bit of a hurry as I needed to get back before dark.

Now, let me clear something up - I hate walking. Hate it. How on earth people can say they enjoy difficult, steep, tiring walks is totally beyond me; I despised every step of that awful trek and am still having nightmares about the flaring pains in my legs and knees. Sure, the views at the top were incredible, breath-taking even and worth every agonising step, but after seeing a helicopter land near the top I decided that there must be better ways to do this sort of thing.

I planned to go to Hot Water Beach the next day where you dig a hole in the sand and sit in your own little hot puddle, but before finding somewhere to stay I stopped at a petrol station where I was warned about an incoming storm that was going to hit the Peninsula really badly. I needed to go to the info centre anyway to find out about tide times at Hot Water Beach so I checked the forecast with them and indeed there was a bad storm coming in - one of the worst in recent history apparently with gale force winds of over 80mph - so I decided Hot Water Beach wasn't worth the risk and promptly took the journey across to the west of the island to Hamilton. I drove round the city for ages trying to find somewhere to camp but without a map, and at night-time, that's pretty hard to do in a city so I eventually settled for a university car park and slept. Not the best choice on a Friday night but beggars can't be choosers.

Little did I know at this point that although I'd escaped the initial eye of the storm it would still manage to plague me for the next 8 days - in fact pretty much my entire trip around the north island.

Hamilton & Raglan

Hamilton is the largest inland city in New Zealand, boasting a simply staggering 150,000 people (about the size of Basingstoke, just smaller than Milton Keynes). Yep, it's pretty small by UK standards, but then again most places are in New Zealand - there are just 4.5 million people in the country compared to 45 million sheep. My Lonely Planet guide didn't have much to say about it, and what it did involved mostly outdoor activities, so what is there to do in Hamilton when it's lashing it down with rain? The storm had hit, and not much was the answer.

I checked into a campsite pretty early after escaping the car park without a fine - I was actually pretty close to finding it without a map, it was only a few streets away - and after getting drenched at a bus stop waiting for a bus to the city centre that never came I went back to my van and watched some Family Guy episodes and a few films.

And that was my day.

No more time to waste so the next morning I went to Hamilton Gardens on the way to Raglan. The rain had eased off a little and the gardens were okay, fairly bland though as no flowers were in bloom, but Raglan was even more unspectacular and boasted even crappier weather. I decided immediately to give up on this area of the country and after getting very muddy tramping up the very average Four Brothers Scenic Reserve I set off for Rotorua, hoping for better weather.