Baaaaaaaa... here we are on the north island of New Zealand. After a random meeting with Owain and Lisa (Aarons brother and fiancee) at Melbourne airport, we had a short flight over to the land of the Kiwis.

The next 6 days were to entail much eating, sight seeing and catching up. First stop was the Bay of Islands, around a 5 hour drive on winding cornish style roads in the bad weather.. we could have almost been at home with the green hills and farm smells (aarooonnnn..not again). Our appartment in the Bay of Islands was like a palace to the likes of me and AAron with a view over the bay and a hot tub on the balcony!!! We bubbled away all our grime and tucked into the local wine! We spent our time visiting a place called Russel, the old capital of NEw Zealand, having dinner cruises with Darryl to the slightly unimpressive Huka waterfalls, and visiting local craft shops, vineyards and chocolate makers...yum.

On from the Bay of Islands we had a mammoth drive south to Taupo, well known for all its volcanic and thermal activity. We saw some amazing geyzers and smelled some nasty eggy stenches at Wai O Tapu, saw Maoris and yes..ate some more!!!! So the last week has been classic. Thanks O and L for putting up with us and draining your wallet. Now we are picking up another camper tommorrow and heading to the west coast in search of some waves....