Homeward bound and gagged

The similes, if that's what they are, were flying today. The landscape between Wellington and Napier (where we are now) is astonishing in its variety, such that we started in Girona and finished in the Cumbrian hills, taking in parts of Ireland (around Levin) the Picos de Europa (outside of Palmerston) New South Wales (pretty much any small town you come across) and ending up in a Pacific version of Scarborough, complete with Art Deco buildings and wide boys in pimped cars along the promenade. All this and monster vineyards too; it's really hard to believe it's uniquely New Zealand, when everything is so incredibly familiar.

The trip's almost over and I'm starting to look forward to not driving for 5 hours a day. We still have Napier to explore and a have a night booked in advance (ooh...) on a farm overlooking Lake Rotorua, but we're definitely on our way back. By which I mean we can feel the "pull" of the places we fell in love with, like Wellington, Nelson and the little town we hope to call home one day soon. I'm superstitious about these things, so please forgive me if I don't say where it is... but we knew straight away we were home, the minute we got there.

We're staying in a great motel apartment on the ocean front, complete with barbie and pool right outside our patio doors. These places are amazingly good value: we have a self-contained studio with a double and two singles, clean, modern and central, and it's only $180 – about 65 quid – a night. We're paying nigh on the same in rent in Auckland, fer chrissakes.

Anyway, I'm pooped, it's late and I've used up all my internetty time posting up pics of the trip on a new Picassa page. Hopefully you'll get an small idea from them what a great place this is to travel; we've been knocked out by the constant stream of amazing sights and brilliant food, the lovely friendly people and their unpretentious towns and cities. Can't wait to get out of Auckland now, even before we get back...

Oh, I forgot to mention the (evening) ferry crossing was rough the other day... great fun, great views, much more like it! Pays to be choosy which boat you pick too: this one (Aratere) let you stand right at the bow, the other (Kaitaki, I think) has you penned like sheep midships. Baah.