We woke up quite late, 8.00am or so, we had yet more driving to do today. We were making our way up to Okahune to meet Sam and Steph but they still don't know we have got the earlier ferry yet, we thought we'd surprise them. We got breakfast and set off, I was looking in the books to see if there was anything of interest between here and there before we get to them that we might want to see. Nothing stuck out so we carried on and decided to follow the signs if anything looked good on the way we'd stop. We didn't rush too much as we'd gained so much time getting the earlier ferry anyway. We stopped in a town called Taihape to have some lunch in the van. It was raining a little but when we were ready to leave it had started absolutely throwing it down. The drive from near there onwards was really pretty, we drove along the coastline. We passed through a small town where it had a sign which said headlights were to be used day and night, it was needed! We drove through, the rain got heavier and the sky got blacker. Driving out we had sunshine in front of us and behind it was like night. Looking across the sea the sky was in half, half black and half sunshine, strange place. We got to about 20km away from Okahune and all we'd sent to the girls was that we had got to north island, so they still don't know. Then we passed a camper with two people in front and it looked just like their van. We then thought our plan may have backfired, had they come further south to meet us, what were the chances of seeing a van the same as theirs so close to where we were due to meet. Seen as we've only seen one other van like theirs on south island previously. We sent a message asking whether they were still in Okahune and had a drive to see if we could see them anywhere, we couldn't and we hadn't yet got a message back. We parked up in a car park which actually would do for the night if we're staying. We decided we'd have a walk around town and see if the girls were about. I was just putting my coat on when we heard beeping, it was them pulling into the same car park. It was great to see them again, it was just fluke we were in the same car park. Steph was just in the middle of sending a message to say meet in the i-site car park (where we actually are) when they turned up. It hadn't been their van that we passed, so we worried for nothing. It was so funny to see each other with so many layers on, last time we were with them it was boiling hot Cambodia. We left our vans in the car park and headed for a pub to catch up and have a drink, we found a pub and sat for a couple of hours swapping stories of what we've done. Sam and Steph have decided to make their New Zealand trip longer and Australia shorter so they're now going to be going to the south island. We decided to go back to the vans seen as it was cheaper and between us we had a couple of bottles of wine to drink. Our van is bigger than theirs so we all sat in ours for the evening and chatted. We had a great night!