In June we visited Helsinki for Ben and Doug’s wedding. A great chance to explore Helsinki and visit Tallinn, Estonia which is only a boat ride away. The wedding was wonderful and I even got to officiate as the official ceremony had already took place. Helsinki, Finland Tallinn, Estonia

Full disclosure…I am writing this at work in Christchurch. 204 days after we finished our campervan tour of the North Island. After we dropped off the campervan we had a few days in Auckland and then back to the UK for our summer of weddings…and catching up with family and friends. Below, like other posts is a photo summary of our last week in the campervan. Rotorua In Rotorua we visited a traditional Maori village, trying to ignore the eggy geothermal smell! My favourite part of Rotorua was definitely the Redwoods Treewalk. Hobbiton Despite my nerdy nature, I actively do not like The Lord of the Rings. Eleanor on the other hand likes it and that doesn’t stop me from appreciating a movie set! Bay of Plenty Waikato Last trip before handing back the campervan!

Photos from our second week.

Photos from our first week

It feels like so long since I last wrote a blog post but in reality our time in Wellington has gone quite fast! When I wrote about our time in Europe and Auckland I wrote them near the end of our visits, so with Wellington I decided to do the same. We will be leaving Wellington after 4 months on Sunday 14th to take a camper van around the North Island. Here is my best attempt at a summary of our time here! We left Auckland on the over-night bus, the best bus service we had been on in our travels. We were given a cookie and a bottle of water, and a first for any bus we’d been on…this bus had hammocks! Of course we didn’t have a hammock as we went for the cheaper chair option; if you ever get an overnight bus from Auckland to Wellington – definitely get the hammock! Our first point of call was setting up a bank account, getting our tax numbers for employment and checking into our last shared bed hostel which in our opinion was definitely the worst (I don’t know if it was actually the worst but after 6 weeks […]