We had a fab day in Abel Tasman Park. Boat ride via the cool Split apple rock to Anchorage. Beautiful dark golden beach surrounded by bush. We walked round the pit head track and down onto a virtually deserted little beach for lunch - just beautiful - it did feel like we were on desert island. Back to the little beach at Anchorage for some serious dam building!! Had great afternoon apart form getting eaten alive by sandflies.

Sunday headed to Picton to catch ferry. Another very scary drive - the worst yet as the road was v narrow and falling into the sea in lots of places!! Followed Queen Charlottes sound though which was very beautiful in its own way. Not my kind of scenery but very serene and peaceful. As was the ferry ride.........until we got out of the sounds and then according to the captain - conditions were less than favorable in the cook strait. Pretty rough crossing - stinky bus parked on the top deck and was pretty alarming watching all the campervans swaying around like anything on the high seas!!

3 hour crossing and we in Wellington. Stayed at really grotty campsite and got out in the morning as soon as we could. Headed up to Napier. Nice easy drive on flat roads!! Big farming area and Napier has hundreds of acres of fruit trees and vines.

Tues we had managed to contact the Markhams and arranged to meet them in the city. Had a fabulous day - was great to see them - although a bit odd meeting on the other side of the world!! Spent the morning in the National Aquarium finding Nemo!!! Then a walk into the city for lunch. The city was all but destroyed in the 1931 earthquake and as such rebuilt in Art Deco style - really lovely little buildings and lots of symbolism everywhere. And flowers everywhere too - really pretty. The earthquake created 300sq km of extra land and raised the city by 2m. There were even a few 1930s cars driving around with their drivers in full regalia.

We waved farewell to Pat and Terry back to their ship and Sam challenged Jase to game of mini golf while I hit the shops :-) surprisingly good shopping actually!!

Wednesday we headed inland to Taupo to New Zealands biggest freshwater lake -formed in 186AD by huge volcanic eruption- and the start of one of the worlds most actice volcanic and geothermal areas. We headed down to the geothermal stream for a paddle. Was v hot!!! You could only paddle where it mixed in with the cool waters of the Waikato river. A very odd thought having a hot river!!! Then took a drive to the Huka fulls - very impressive falls -not a long drop but a huge volume. Waikato river has 8 hydro electric power stations along its length providing up to 15% of the countrys electric - thats an impressive amount - NZ certainly seems to embrace alternative energy sources. Taupo itself not a particularly attractive town but guess people go there for all the activities on the lake.

Thursday we travelled to Raglan on the west coast but stopped in Waiotapu thermal wonderland!! Was excellent place actually - boys really loved it. Went to see a geyser then had an hours plus walk through loads of different mineral pools and lakes and waterfalls all with different colours etc. Was obviously very smelly and steamy but v interesting. Some beautiful parts of it where the various minerals deposited out - the orange beach of champagne pool and the almost flourescent green of the devils bath. A quick stop at the gloopy bubbling mud pool and then on to Raglan.

SO Raglan - surfers paradise apparently - hippy chilled town. Mmmmm bit disappointing really - sufers beach is 8km away and yes hippy but also pretty grubby good cafes though. BEach was pretty disappointing too - black sand again. Love of Raglan not helped by hearing about Japan earthquake and subsequent risk of tsunami also hitting NZ coast - yey another natural disaster to avoid. So we got up early and headed for the hills!

Quick shop stop in Te Aroha which seemed pretty little edwardian town with beautiful park and thermal spas which unfortunately was still closed as we were so early. Then on up to Waihi passing on route through the beautiful Karangahake Gorge. Waihi pleasant surprise - really sweet friendly little town. Dominated at the top by relics from its gold mining past. We went into the Info centre and found out that its still literally sitting on a gold mine!!! Had a small but v interesting museum all about the gold industry. Was a huge underground mine from late 1800s until 1952 then modern techniques in 1970s and 1980s suggested that would be worth reinvesting so the mine turned into open cast. We learnt quite a bit about the whole process - dissolved gold and silver out of the quartz using cyanide solution! Results in dore bars which are actually 80-90% silver. Had a walk upto mine which is right in the town centre and is MASSIVE!! Huge hole in the ground! The old cornish style pumping station sits at the top of the mine. This is also a huge three storey structure, made all the more impressive when we found out that it had been moved in its entirety 296m from where it originally stood as it was about to collapse into mine. Huge feat of engineering. So all in all impressed by Waihi - one of the most well looked after towns we have passed through too - whether this in to do with the fact there is a large industry within the town I dont know. Mining due to cease in 2012 and the mine turned into a lake - wonder what the future holds for the town.

So east of the town is Waihi beach apparently a big kiwi holiday destination. and can see why - 8km of soft golden sand - surfy area too. Apparently one of the safest beaches to swim on. Not yesterday though as the tidal surges were impressive. One minute the sea was 50m away the next min was lapping at my towel and then you looked again and it was right out. Very freaky.

So I think today we head up to Whitianga on the Coromandel peninsula - try and catch up with friends of friends and then start to make our way to Auckland - one more week and counting.......