New Zealand on a tight budget.

Thought you might like to see my family Facebook blog of the trip we are currently enjoying to New Zealand's North Island

I'll start with Day 1

We had a great day in Singapore, what a place it is! A group of young Malaysian women stopped me I thought they wanted me to take their photo for them, turned out they wanted to take a picture with me on it - I've a horrible feeling I'm trending on Twitter in Kuala Lumpur with a very unkind hashtag :-( .Had a quiet overnight flight to Auckland and breezed through the notorious bio security so quickly we ended up picking up the van about an hour and a half earlier than we expected. The weather was fine and warm, we stocked up at the petrol station and supermarket before driving to Piha through the Waitakere Ranges Scenic Park. Saw Pukeko Paradise ducks, a rabbit and lots of birds we haven't identified yet. The forecast tomorrow is not great but then we should have had two inches of rain today and there has been half a dozen spots so we'll see! Our van is a bit battered round the edges which saves us having to worry about putting dents in it. slightly bigger than our last NZ van but smaller than the US one. The local volunteer fire fighters have just been over to give a party of school children staying a demonstration. tomorrow we head north.