Kia Ora people,

So here we are again, sat in the glorious evening sun writing to you all.

Its been a fun, filled and adventurous week or so since we last checked in with you guys with lots of places visited, a ton of laughs and kilometres driven along the way. On our travels so far, we have visted Piahia, Tauranga, Napier, Rotorua, Taupo, Waitomo, Hamilton and of course have spent some time in the awesome city of Auckland.

Since our last post, we hydrated and rejuvinated ourselves with a few days here in Auckland, before hitting the road and heading south. Starting at Tauranga, and working our way south to Napier and then back up toward Taupo, Waitomo and Hamilton - we have covered just over 1,000km in just under one weeks camping exploration. And to top it off, no one is yet seriiously injured, arrested, or dead...

We have put below a couple of highlights of the best bits of our week, some of which come from our GoPro which we have discovered is the best invention of all time (seriously). So here you go:

Tauranga

AMAZING PLACE, AMAZING VIEWS. A seriously large town around 2 hours south east of Auckland, with turquoise waters, white sand and what we can only describe as houses wel never afford. We camped under Mount Maunganui (probably spelled wrong) literally a stones throw from the beach. Best highlights:

- Mountain unreal - a great walk, even with total paranoia regarding bug bites. Views over Tauranga some of the best we have seen in all of NZ.

- Bruce having the balance of a clumsy child - dropping a beer botle and ending in the craziest cuts to blood ratio (and a pretty unhappy reception desk worker), and we had a few moments for the lost beer.

- We discovered the GoPro and pursued videos of us 'body surfing'... needless to say it failed and we literally ended up with a face full of seaweed and sea water.

Rotorua

A town just 100km south of Tauranga, and slightly inland. The place where it pretty much smells like ass, due to the Thermal sulphur flats it is built on / around.

- Bubbling mud and natual thermal lakes. Very tempted to jump in but not sure if we would have melted or something.

- Seaguls decending on some poor b***** with food (a growing trend). See picture uploaded.

Napier

South of Rotorua, and through an awesome mountain range. Awesome Christmas with Bruce's / Derek's (Bruces sister's fella) family. Amazing hospitality, stunning houses, glorious sunshine. Only one other highlight:

- Christmas day in the heat of mid summer - Ash is not a fan (Bruce is). It's just weird. Full stop.(.)

Taupo

RIDICULOUSLY HOT SUN. We almost actually died (we didn't) putting the tent up. This town is amazing, period. It sits on the second largest fresh water lake in the world, which is actually a dormant super volcano (so big, no one has ever reached the bottom of the lake..). Stunning views, amazingly chilled atmosphere (like most of NZ) and just all around a real laugh.

- Drove around all of town only to reject all attractions as they cost money and, well, were just cheap like that.

- Took our 1996 truck off road, he survived (Benji is an animal)

- Spent a whole day meandering around doing nothing and laughing at the fact that we literally had nothing to do.

- Played the 'hole in one challenge' - hitting golf balls onto a green ON THE LAKE! Bucket list item totally ticked off.

- Watched the dam opening and went GoPro crazy.

Waitomo / Hamilton

Hamilton... RUUUUBISH!. Waitomo, has pretty much nothing but the most unbelieveable caves packed with glow worms that you can possibly find. A small town heading back north toward Auckland, it literally has nothing but these caves. Nothing.

The highlight for this place is the caves. Thousands of glow worms dot the caves and a real good tour around.

Auckland

Back in Auckland we have spent the last few days with Bruce's family, chilling out, doing the odd bit of DIY and so on. We spent today playing the funniest game of golf as we started our newly formed Golf open championship that will take us to pitch and putt courses all around the countries we visit. Not to mention Bruce snapping a 9 iron and me totally cocking up on the last hole, to end 1 shot down after two rounds, it was a roaring success... The challenge is on!

We finished today with an awesome BBQ with everyone and are now literally vegging out on the sofa writing to you guys.

We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and has an awesome new year. Bring in 2015 in style people, and wel see you on the other side and in Australia.

Big love

Bruce and Ash

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