On route to Hobbiton we stopped off at Papamoa Beach for the evening, treated ourselves to a Chinese, which was rank, and watched a bit of the rugby. It was good to see them all doing the Haka and actually understand what it was all about. Papamoa was a really lovely beach town but as we were short on time we didnt get to spend much time there, so it will definitely be on our list of places to go if we return.

The next morning we were up nice and early and very excited to be going to Hobbiton, it turns out that it has recently been set up for the filming of the prequal to Lord Of The Rings, The Hobbit, so we were very lucky to see it at its best and we were told that it was the first time visitors have ever been able to visit a set before the film is released so it felt extra special.

The guide was full of knowledge about all the behind the scene stuff and made time to take photos for us all and talk us through each significant part of Hobbiton and the history of the grounds (a sheep farm), even though we were allowed to take lots of photos we had to sign a disclaimer to say that we would not publish them, so unfortunately we cant put any on here! :( But we did get some great ones of us at the gigantic tree where Bilbo had his party in the first film and lots of the Hobbit houses and The Green Dragon pub. We also got to see some sheep shearing on the farm and got to feed the baby lambs.

That evening we really wanted to watch the film to see where we had been and what it looked like on film, luckily the campsite where we stayed that night lent us it from their personal collection, charged me $6 though, cheeky lady, and that wasn't the worst of it, she decided to come knocking at our campervan at 9:55am to remind us that checkout was at 10am! Its the first time we have experienced someone so inhospitable, she continued to tell us that we were taking liberties as we were waiting for our kettle to boil and it was 10 minutes after check out, even though we were using no electricity or facilities, just literally parked up on a bit of grass, I so wanted to do a Vicky Pollard on her butt but instead Jusy Lucy did a little pee pee on her drive! Oooops, naughty Ashley! Made him feel better though ha ha...

That day we took a visit to Hot Water Beach, a famous beach in NZ where at low tide you dig holes in the sand and hot water comes up caused by hot volcanic rocks that lie under a certain parts of the beach. After digging several holes only to be disappointed by cold water Ash went off to find the tide times leaving me to enjoy the sunshine. 10 mins later and a handful of ice lollies he was back and soon after the tide was out and more people started to arrive. We walked to the shore and the heat under our feet was unreal, like a big kid Ash got all excited and frantically started to dig, it was unbelievably hot! So we had a good few hours of fun making our own hot pools and bathing our feet, some of the spots were just too hot though and part of it was even bubbling. It was a lovely afternoon and made us realise how much we'd missed the beach! We also got talking to another English couple who we later invited for tea and bacon sarnies in our camper. Several hours of chatting later we realised we had better set off . We started to head north for the Bay of Islands, our next destination, and stopped for the night at Manukau. Morning quickly came and we were on the road again to Pahia, The Bay Of Islands. We found a really cheap campsite situated right on Hururu Falls where we were to spend the next 3 nights. Pahia was a small beach town with lots of interesting arty shops and cafes so we had a nice afternoon wondering around looking at all the local artwork. The next day we took a walk down to the falls (Hururu Falls) and spent the rest of the day chilling out at the campsite. Until now we had done all our cooking in the camper but decided (after 4 weeks) we should really make the most out of the campsite kitchens, it turns out it was sooo much easier and wished we'd used them more often and Ash didn't have the 'I cant do dishes in here its too small and my back hurts' excuse! Ha ha...

We visited Kerikeri, the next town on from Pahia, which was home to some of the first ever buildings built in New Zealand, it was very pretty and, like Pahia, very arty. We visited nearby Rainbow Falls which was beautiful, by far the best waterfall we've seen and to top it off there was a rainbow! We then went to to eat our lunch and were surrounded by an army of duck, geese, chickens and seagulls! It was funny to watch Ash prance about trying to save his sandwiches! ha... afterwards we did the Kerikeri trail, a trail of about 15 craft shops. A chocolate factory and a fudge shop later and we were done! Full of sugar and feeling a bit nauseous we headed back to Pahia for a lay down!

Our next stop was Auckland for the weekend to celebrate Ash's birthday and to pack for our flight to Fiji. We stopped off at Takapuna Beach for an evening for our last night in Jucy Lucy! We arrived in Auckland and checked in to our apartment, yes, apartment! After a funny five minutes of running around the place feeling freedom of space after 5 weeks in a camper, we took a walk into the city where we strolled around the shops and found a nice food hall where we had a yummy sushi lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching movies and sorting out the mound of junk we had collected over our stay in NZ, we managed to fill a bag full of stuff for charity. That evening, as it was Ash's birthday, we treated ourselves and went to a local Italian restaurant, recommended to us by the hotel staff. It was delicious and Ash even got a free dessert for it being his birthday, topped with candles :)

The next day we had a walk down to the harbour and on the way back stopped for a little pampering at a cheap chinese salon. After much persuasion from me Ash had a pedicure and foot massage, (it was funny to see his face when the lady asked him what colour nail polish he wanted! Ha ha...) while I opted for some painful waxing. That evening we finished packing and made the most of our apartment by ordering in Pizza and having a night in front of the TV.

We are currently sat at Auckland airport waiting to board for Fiji, we feel quite sad to be leaving New Zealand, such a beautiful country and interesting culture, we are sure we will return again someday...

But for now, time to dust off those flip flops.... PARADISE here we come!!!