Day 30- Rotorua-Auckland-Omaha- What a surprise, when we came to leave our hostel to walk to the bus stop, the heavens once again opened! So we turned up pulling off the drowned rat look!-Sexy! To our horror we turned up to see the useless Buzz was our driver again-oh b*****! The day got even better when we found they had forgotten to put our name down on the list to be collected dammit! There was enough space though- not that that mattered as I was getting on no matter what!- I feel as though I've smelt too much egg! So on the bus and once again Buzz announces he didn't know how long he was stopping off at places on the way etc-was going to be a looooong day once again! Our main stop of the day was at Mt Mauganui-a beautiful beach town which was a good place to be when the weather is nice...unfortunatly unlike the weather for the easter weekend in England, the weather for easter weekend here was due to be pants-so we decided to move on as there was absolutely nothing to do there in the rain! So we walked up to the beach, took our photos and ticked it off as a place we had been! From Rotorua to Auckland, it was about 220km- this didn't stop us having a million pointless stops on the way though-all because the driver got a million free cups of tea and cakes at each place! After stopping at Thames, we were on the final stretch to Auckland-finally! It was at this point that Mr useless announced that he had only drivem through Auckland twice and had got lost twice-great" We had arranged to meet Elaine at 3.15pm (Scott's sisters boyfriends mum for those of you who don't know) at the bus terminal-well at 3.30pm we were still ont he bus trying to find the correct way through the roadworks, aswell as trying to get into town! After all that he then said we wouldn't be stopping at the bus terminal, so we got off and ran whilst we could, and we went on a mission to find the bus station itself! Seeing as my mobile broke on week 1 in Australia, we had no means of contacting Elaine to tell her how late we were going to be and where actually we were meeting. We soon found the bus terminal to be one huuuuuge place! b*****. After walking/searching around all hot and bothered, Scott decided to ask a lady we walked past looking confused if she was Elaine- it turned out it was her- I was still in a daze and didn't realise we had found her and Richard until they were deep into conversation and this confused lady now looked rather relieved-awesome! They then drove us an hour and a half north to a place called Omaha where they lived. We were excited to be out of a hostel and also excited to find all the baby pictures of Naif! Mwahahaha! Our arrival had interupted a weekend of painting-we did offer to help out and earn our keep, but they insisted otherwise. So we spent the evening drinking wine and beer and going on Laura Harris's facebook page so Elaine and Richard could get a full insight into her life...well rather see what she looked like to see who this girl was who was putting up with her son! After we had updated Elaine on her son's life, we called it a night!

Day 31-Omaha- After a weetbix breakfast, we headed to the RD6 market so Elaine could buy her local produce-apples! We wandered round-apart from the fresh food the market was a load of tosh" Full of nicknacky bits you could get at a jumble sale! Second stop was Matakana for the market there-well after we deposited mr mosher off to go get his haircut! Elaine bought huge grapes which had pips in-seeing as they tasted awful I then had the task of disposing of them discretely! The next task was trying to find the freshly sheared boy who had gone looking for us round the market- I was shocked that he didn't see and eye up the crepe stand! (saved me $4 then!) He told us the hairdresser almost forgot to trim one of his sideburns! Yes conversation has got to this stage! We came back for lunch via going to the supermarket to buy in some supplies aka tim tams for our afternoon tea! The afternoons encounter involved driving to a picturesque place called Leigh where you could snorkel and see all sorts of fish. We watched fromt he rocks as it wasn't quite warm enough to go in!...next thing you see is the pasty englishman getting int he water, who was then asked by an indian family if the water was warm. He replied I'm from England, this is boiling! We went home via Scotts point so Scott could have a photo to make him feel important!

Day 32-Omaha- Wewalked along Omaha beach for a time passing a huge washed up fish on the sand-yummy! Before long, their friends arrived for a bbq-they seemed nice but the guy was one of those people who thought he knew everything and was right on everything also, so we soon switched off! In the mean time Scott was taking notes from Richard over how to cook a moist chicken on the barbe using beer! He looked like a boy on work experience following Richard around everywhere! Was definatly worth the wait for lunch-barbes are gooood! After eating too much we then went on a walk back to the beach front and to nose at all the huge houses on the beach...some were beautiful and some looked like a telecoms building! Oh well, each to their own I guess!
Day 33-Omaha (26/4/11) So the one time we have a nice quiet room and Scott still insists we get up at the crack of sodding dawn! So we get up and have our weetbix and museli to make us big and strong for the day, and also to help us cope with the sodding rain. To make matters even worse, we heard that you guys at home were having glorius sunshine! Dentist and McCafe were on the menu for this morning...Elaine went t the dentist and we gave her moral support by going to the cafe and sit and wait for our hot drinks for 10mins whilst the one gear waitress (slow gear) caught up on the million orders she had had before us! Her love for the job must have had an effect on us as we walked out yawning! So we went and finished giving moral support to Elaine by going to the bakery to get her something to eat from the bakery-well seeing as she needed to go, Scott assumed it meant that he needed to go too! I was being good so didn't get anything...so had a bite of Scott and Elaine's buys instead! Second stop for the day was to drive over to the westcoast in the pouring rain to watch the surfers in the sea trying to catch waves when there wern't any in sight! We also went to see Scott's bird equivalent...wait for it...some ganets! (once again my dad will be so proud of me for spotting some!) They normally all rest on the rocks doing a funny dance...well over half of them had disappeared today...but at least it gave the other birds space to do their dance properly! We walked back to the car int he pouring rain with only our Wales umbrellas to protect us! It was time to go and see some spoodle pups...yes you heard that correctly! Some friends of Elaine and Richard, so we went round to see what exactly a spaniel and a poodle produced! Turns out they were rather cute, and I was tempted to sneak one out under my cardy as $1000 for a dog was a little over my buget-thats 3weeks worth of living yo uknow! We finished up our beverages-home made by Ann and Rob-you could certainly tell that from the taste of my cloudy lemonade! But full marks for trying though! Our next stop on the way back was to stop off for a cuppa and a loo stop at Sarah and Debbie's house, who had a farmyard of animals all in their back yard! Sheep, chickens, and goats who shouldn't be out in the rain as they do not have waterproof fur...but seeing as they lack a little common sense remained outside! The chickens once out of the way of the moving car then hovered around under shelter from the rain- they looked rather funny! Debbie and Sarah must have remembered that Scott was coming too as they had a whole box of cookies for us to have with our tea and what we didn't eat there were then given to Scott to take home! See...it doesn't take long for him to get a name for himself! Once we had played ball with Alfie the dappy dog who doesn't understand the concept of 'drop the dam ball' and bring the ball to me, don't drop it miles away from my reach! (we had to give and take a little) It was then time for home and we came bac to find the power to be off on some of the appliances so it made dinner a little more complicated but we got there in the end! The electrician had to come out the following day as they couldn't work out for the life of them how to turn them back on as the trip switch was fine!

Day 34-Omaha- As electricians do...they say they will turn up at a certain time, then not turn up until hours later! So two hours after he saud he would turn up, the electrician finally shows up and starts to find out the answer to our problem! Once finding the trip switch was fine, it took him all of 30seconds to identify the problem...they were going to kick themselves...they had accidently turned the individual switch to the microwave, dishwasher and hob off! Well we felt like utter plonkers! He was soon on his way to go and do some real work as he called it-hahahaha! Oh well, lesson learnt, you should always check individual switches to avoid looking like a plonker! To blow that incident out of our systems we went on a bike ried round the town borrowing Elaine and Richards's bikes and highering the saddle alot! The bike ride was enjoyable, aart from the fact the saddle was still too low and bloody uncomfortable-but a good way to see the town! (even if you were in pain!) We bought some dinner items (yes we were in charge of dinner tonight- this was hopefully going to be a more successful ready steady cook than the last one!) After lunch it started pouring with rain (standard when you want to go outside!) so I sent Scott back out on the bike to buy the remainder of dinner- better to send only one in these conditions hey! When it came to cooking dinner, we probably for 0/10 for cmbination but a stuffed pepper with cous cous and veg certainly wouldn't normally go with sausages in a tomato sauce...but for tonight and tonight only, they all went splendidly together! Lets just hope we didn't poison anyone! Elaine gave us a cream egg for pudding so we can't have done too badly or she could have made us go without! I was happy to see a cream egg again! Normally at this time of year a cream egg a day keeps the doctor away, but seeing as we are lacking a little financially and tim tams being better value for money, we have had to go without!