Soooooo last blog from NZ!!! And with a bit of luck should be able to upload a bucketload of pics tomorrow.

From Waihi beach we called back in at Waihi and took the goldfields train through to Waikino - sweet little train ride - sat on a picnic table in an open air carriage!!! With a geordie conductor! Boys enjoyed it anyway - took us back through the river gorge - v pretty.

So we headed up the Coromandel peninsula to Whitianga (pronounced fitianga and known as Fiti city apparently!!). Really nice little town on the river estuary. v quiet campsite - we were only camper van on there for 2 nights!. MOnday we headed to Hahei beach - gorgeous gorgeous white sand beach surrounded by beautiful properties! Clear blue sea and safe for swimming so that was lovely to get back in the sea properly!!

Monday evening we drove out to Matarangi on the north coromandel coast to friends of friends and had a fab time. They live right on the beach and it is so so peaceful there. We walked along the estuary and the beach with them and their dog - lovely. We stayed and had a meal with them and then had the challenge of driving scary roads back to campsite in the dark - jase did sterling job though!!!

Tues we had slow start and then wandered into town - just really nice locals town - nothing speecial but everyone really friendly and quite a few shops to browse in. We boarded the glass bottom boat in the afternoon and headed out along the coast.. Stunning coastline as there are lots of bits fallen into sea and lots of very cool rock formations. The best being a huge arch called CAthedral cove - which apparently featured in opening credits of Narnia film?! The white cliffs combined with stunning clear turquoise waters was beautiful. We motored on through the marine reserve and stopped to feed the hungry hoards of Red Snapper we viewed through glass bottom of boat!! Actually very pretty fish! Was very noticeable how many there were in the reserve and how we didnt see any once outside the reserve.

We managed to go into sea cave that was pretty cool. Was cool to actually see the alignment of the rocks along a fault line in the cave - the same fault line that leads to the hot water springs on the next beach (more on that later!!) - a very redundant fault line though apparently??!

We pulled into another cove where the sea was almost totally flat so that we could all have a snorkel. Was much colder than the great barrier reef but still good. Sam came in for a bit and the twins briefly. I had asnorkel into a cave and managed to see a sting ray hiding in the sand. NOt many other fish at all though but such clear water.

And that was it for out little boat journey - boys loved it. Finished the day off nicely with couple of nice cold beers in pub by the marina :-). Big marina actually with lots of v expensive looking boats.

Wed morning we had looked at tide times and decided to head to hot water beach as you needed to be there 1-2hrs either side of low tide. Bit of a disappointment though really people had dug holes but not got the spa pool of hot water as advertised in all the blurb!!! We did find the hot spot though just by sinking your feet into the sand you hit really hot water that burned your feet!!!. Was pretty freaky standing in the coolish sea with your feet burning!!! Tide comes in pretty quick too so not much time to dig your pool!! So we abandoned the crowds and headed back to the peace of Hahei for a couple of hours before coming back to town for hair cuts and fab meal out. Jase had HUGE plate of ribs!! Boys v impressed!!

Thurs we finally reluctanly dragged ourselves away from Whitianga and headed north again up and over the top of the peninsula. More scary scary roads!!! The most scary bit was the fact that every few metres there is a huge landslip on side of road - they all look very recent and very deadly. You want to put your foot down to get past them all but the hairpins bends and steep gradients prevent that!!! Very soft rock on Coromandel - pumice and ash basically!! Still the view of Coromandel Harbour was worth the drive definately - was amazing. It was so perfect it looked fake - looked like it had been painted on!!

Quick stop in Coromandel town - another old gold town. Then we headed up Driving Creek road to the scenic railway./ This is a narrow gauge railway built over 27 years by a potter!!! As a hobby!! Is around 3 km long and climbs via a number of spirals and switchbacks around 120m up a mountain to a lookout called the Eyefull tower. Complete with 3 tunnels and a double decker bridge!!! Very very random but pretty cool and had all the stunning views at the top. Needless to say boys loved it particularly my trainspotting eldest!!! Apparently one of the great train journeys of the world!!! Spent a peaceful night in Shelly beach and then headed through the big bad city of Auckland to Orewa. Poured with rain yesterday so had an afternoon catching up on postcards etc which was actually quite nice. Followed by walk along the beach. Today the sun shone so had walk into town and a play on the huge beach revealed by the outgoing tide. Got all our bags packed and sorted and had fish and chips for tea.. We were lucky enough to have a clear evening to see the "supermoon" big bright full moon. Pretty spectacular over the water for sure. And thats it New Zealand DONE!!!! Cant believe we are half way through!!! Head into city tomorrow to fly at four pm. We have a 5 hour flight but we loose 23 hours - so we get to have saturday night and sunday all over again!!! V freaky time travel! Tahiti (or Teeti As boys call it!) here we come :-) :-) xx