Hello all, Well alot has happened since our last postcard: we've bought a van (Janet 2 - the Vanette!) and she's a beaut! Met up with Anna (my sister) and her traveling chums and found a nice campsite on the outskirts of Auckland. Lots of crazy birds congregating round our van whilst we dished out bread crumbs! Went to the Big Day Out concert- it was scorching hot sunshine all day and was a good event but a bit weird. There was far to many rules, and to drink alcohol you had to stand in a caged off area away from the stages! So we didn't drink much. Best bands were definitely The Donnas, The Hives and The Polyphonic Spree! Then on Sunday we finally left Auckland... we were glad to be out of the city by then! The drive from there ws interesting..... the road would suddenley without warning turn from 2 lane tarmac road to 1 lane gravel track! The scenery amazing though. You know The Shire where the Hobbits live in lord of the rings.... well it was exactly like that for about 200 km! We stopped at some hots springs, which was actually a couple of swimming pools filled with varying temperate water- all hot! Just what we needed on another mega hot day! But a welcome break and a nice dip. We're now in Raglan Bay, on the west coast of the north island. Its a really nice small town in a harbour. And if you've ever watched the surf film Endless Summer, you'll know it has the 'best left hand break in the world'! Well the beaches are certainly stunning, but when we got there it was a case of "you should have been here yesterday!". Hardly any waves, but lovely bright blue/green water. We'll come back again soon, once we've bought some surfboards. Right, can't seem to download any pics onto the site at the mo, so will try again tomorrow. Hope you're all well. We're gonna start making our way over to Lake Taupo tomorrow. See ya laters, Ian and Clare. xxxx