Well Hello there.

Here we spending our last day in the north island, We head for the south island at 10am 14th Feb! Well i have more time this time to tell you all the stories that have happened......I will explain the last journal in more detail this time too....here goes......

26/01 -we woke this mornng still in the Golden Owl and it was chucking down with rain. We decided to chicken out and wait til the rain had stopped!! Jonny having a bit of a paddy because he wants to do more miles etc....... (im really trying) So once the rain stopped we got straight on the bike 11am didn't bother to put any suncream on. Nice day cycle to Matamanta another campsite with hot springs 46.84 miles in total and by the end of the day my arms were RED RAW!!!!! the sun still seemed to get me for the frist time since i have been away!!

27/01 - Arms are killing and had to wear my long sleeve top which is black!! my godness it was the hottest day yet! Heat still hurt Today was all up hill This was the day when we decided to take a quite road that said No exit but we still continued and went through forest and all sorts. Ran out of water and did not know how far we were from the main road. Eventually we got to main road and asked for shop in town. Got big bottle of coke and mars bar and sat outside the shop and enjoyed every bit of it. Thats when the ladies pulled out in there cars and invited us back to there place where we could stay for free and still have a hot shower and food! So we gave them all our bags and they drove ahead whilst we cycled with no bags it was amazing. We had such a good night and the tem were fantastic as you can see from the place it was totally worn down but the grass was soft to sleep on!!

28/1 - Said goodbye to everyone and thanks sooo much and it was a cycle down hill to Rotarua 15.87 miles you could smell rotten eggs as we arrived. Stayed in a nice campsite.

29/1 - Rained all night and 3 lads decided to put there tents up right next to us and stay awake talking till 5am....not a happy bunny. Had a lazy day and watched the rain fall!!

30/1 - went to the geothermal park and wandered around it was so amazing as you can see from the pictures! back on the bike and cycled to camp site in Golden springs 32 miles really good day!

31/1 - Head wind all day it was so annoying 28.87 miles a man shouted out to us ÿou made it then"we dont seem to reckonise people but they certainly do with us. they see us in the car and then stop and talk to us. Here was where we met the dutch couple and thier 8month baby!

1/2 - Nice cycle day three cars drove past us a different times totting and they were people we had met a few days ago. One of the faces looked amazed as we had seemed to have taken over they somewhere down the line and they are in a car!! 34.12 miles

2/2 - 34.83 miles. We knew we had a big day today. all up hill!! we went via rangipo which we less steep but the head wind was an absolute killer! We headed all the way to Whakapapa village. It was freezing up there and it was in the newspapers that they thought the volcanio that was there was really to errupt great!!!!!!

3/2 - woke up and went for a two hr walk nice a gentle not a 4 hr hike up a mountain!!!came back and packed the tent away and cycle to the next village called the national village.

4/2 - 30 miles to raetihi lovely dy on the bike. We were missing our dutch freinds thys and barbara but we bumped into them at the campsite we went to which was good! We also met a german couple with two kids he was on a tandem with his 4yr old girl on the back and baby in the trailer and his wife on her own bike with a big trailer.

5/2 - 42 miles to Atene it was a great down hill on gravel road and the road was so quite it was lovely. Ended up staying at a DOC camp site which had no shower and a hole as a toilet. There was a tap that dripped water and we managed to wash off a little with that.!!!!

06/02 - 26 miles to Wanganui it was freezing this morning had a massive hill and we had lots of people telling us that our dutch friends said that if we see you to tell you that they camped just the next town behind us. Found a backpackers in town and the owner seemed very stressed out!

7/2 - Got up this morning and told the owner that he came across very stressed and it seemed that he either needed a holiday or move of job. He was really bad! Anyway got on the highway 3 for a bit and there was a steep hill we were right on the line as you can imagine we were going quite slow......all of a sudden one of those double long logging trucks missd us by an inch and by this point we were right over the line. 4mins later a black 4x4 pick up zoomed passed us with the flashy lights on and we hoped that he was after the lorry driver....but there was no way he would have seen what happened our else he would have reacted quicker. Arrived into town and then the black pickup pulled over and done a u turn jonny got out and said to the police officer that a lorry driver nearly killed us... the police man said yep...... this is the driver and got him out of the passanger side wowowowowowowo!!!!!!!! He said you can either charge him or have a few words! this guy looked like a right weirdo so we said no just a few words will be fine so the driver said sorry and we said a few things to him. Off he went and after the police man dropped him off he also came back to talk to us and tell us that he was on his last warning ect. Thats was sooooooo cool he got the driver and drove him to us to say sorry!!!!!hahaha that made both our day! 24.12miles to Martin which was a well scarey campsite i never slept a wink and jonny said we will camp here so noone can see us but when someone did come at 4am johnny decideds to get out the tent and make sooo much noice......what are they doing at 4am!!!!!!

8/2 - Wanted to leave cmpsite asap!!!! no one came and asked for money so off we went cycled to next to fielding where we stayed at the campsite and jean and david cooked us a big steak!!!!

09/2 - went to a bed and breaky place treated oursleves!!! It was lovely very traditional. We also booked in to the livestock as you can see from the pictures it was were the sheep and cattle where sold sheep were around 66 dollers per one and cattle 600 dollers per one!!! I felt sorry for them all as they looked so scared and nervous bless yem!

10./2 - cycled 1mile then all of a sudden my peddle fell off!! jonny seemed to fix it a bit but we cycled 42.31 miles to palmerston north were we knew would be good bike shops....... not one shop sold the peddle i have so we cycle on to the next town where we camped. Will need to get to wellington asap!!

11/2 - rest day Knees are really really sore!!!! got a cabin for 20 dollers not bad and met some classic people on this campsite!

12/02 - 51.48 miles to masterton where we stayed the night to get the train to wellington tomorrow! Really nice cycle day however knee played up by the end!

13/2 - here we are in wellington and off to Picton (south isalnd) tomorrow)

Hope all is well..... please leave a message and let us know how you all are!

Love letitia and Jonny xx