So we have had a wicked time in Auckland with Daves college roommate Ryan, his wife Jill who is pregnant with their second, and their little angel Isabel. We have mainly chilled with them, visiting town once for some Diamond shopping!(but with no luck). Jill has been the perfect hostess - we have really vedged with her - having a BBQ, Brownies and lots of homemade amazing cooking. We also went to see the new Harry Potter movie and sat in a beanbag cinema - so c...

We camped for one more night in the carpark at Pahia for another night (as it was free!) and left stupidly early for the furthest north town in New Zealand, at least we think it is... This was the gateway to the far north, 90 mile beach and a place called Cape Reina. We were not insured to drive on 90 mile beach which is actually designated as a road, so we had to catch a very cheap tour. And cheap it was, the driver of our beach bus was so annoying - he reall...

So the next location on our list was the legendary Bay of Islands, which is one of the most northernly tourist places in New Zealand, just 3 hours north of Auckland. We were told by so many people that this was a must do in New Zeland, although neither of us have done it before.We actaually camped in a car park in the middle of a town called Pihia for the 2 days we were there - $12 for 24 hours, and we got our first ticket for free :-)We booked on what was called...

We survived the erie night alone by the lake - although Dave was sure that a Friday the 13th monster was going to emerge from the lake at some point! We headed to the Waitomo Caves today which was about an hour from our creepy camping position. we had heard nothing but good things about this experience - as it has 3 caving sites one which is renowned as a Glowworm cave. We were lucky enough that the same company who own the Campervan, also own this experience ...

Next on the agenda was a geek out for Dave when we visited Matamata - the Movie set of Hobbiton (in the Lord of the Rings films). Unfortunately he had to sign a non disclosure agreement upon entering which means he can not say what he saw while visiting :-(. But it was a GREAT experience - We am sure you can figure out why if you think about it!!!! Lets just say that the photos are incredible but we can not upload them online due to the confidentalality agreement...