G'day (it's easier than kia ora and hello).

We haven't slowed down since our last update, been real busy! Karl's been doing us proud on the road and yes we're still cruising around! We now have the fastest campervan in NZ, it's official!

From Franz and Fox Glaciers we cut back across the country to Hanmer Springs, an afternoon of relaxation. Hanmer Springs is famous for a mixture of sulphur pools and freshwater thermal pools with a bit of artificial help through electricity! The pools range in temperature from around 28 degrees up to a piping hot 41 degrees and we tried them all. The hot ones were the sulphur pools so stank of rotten eggs, but give it 5 minutes and you got used to the smell and felt like a boiled one! This is a big area where a lot of the southerners come to relax on weekends, really plush place with saunas, etc so made the most of it! We looked like two prunes by the time we left.

Being a friend of Matt & Amanda's (this is the one couple that were given permission to come as a Kiwi to our leaving do!), we felt it was only fair to go and see his home town of Kaikoura, on the East coast of the South Island. This is most famous for whale watching, crayfish, marine life and plenty of birds, the ones that fly! Really nice place to relax and catch up with a few NZ beers in the Adelphi Bar, not to mention Matt's parents and a friend of his who lived in Watford, what a small world! Weather was kind so walked to the Peninsula and spotted a few fur seals lounging around in the sun, unfortunately the whales were too far out for us to get a glimpse but spotted a few dolphins out at sea. 

Stopped at Picton, the town where the Wellington ferry goes from. Not much to do in town but the ferry trip across to North Island was pretty awesome. It meanders its way through the Marlborough Sounds, a smaller version of the Milford Sounds but still impressive. Not your average ferry trip! Even had dolphins swimming alongside the boat, not to mention the truck loads of sheep on the back end of the boat! Poor things were all crammed in, all you could see was their hair blowing in the wind and the occasional bit of pushing and shoving, but sure they were happy singing baa baa black sheep all the way there.

North Island:

Arrived in windy Wellington as its known by the locals. Certainly different to our arrival in Christchurch. Bit of a disappointment for the capital city, dreary and industrial with not a lot to do. Except for the museum of New Zealand 'Te Papa' of course, Lauren thought it would be interesting so i reluctantly followed her inside. At this rate i'll need a new pair of wellies! After an hour of pretending to be interested we both decided it was boring and left, thank god for that! The only thing we've got to remember Welly by is a bar through Laurens belly button! For you who don't know she has a bit of a phobia about belly buttons, particularly her own so it was a big achievement, a very proud moment!

Enough of city life, time to get back to some more natural wonders. Mount Taranaki (Egmont). This is a dormant volcano, 2518m high and was used in the Tom Cruise film The Last Samurai in 2003. It last erupted about 350 years ago and is about 50 years overdue to erupt again. There is constant activity within the volcano and luckily they can predict an eruption so up we go! It's situated half way up the North Island on the far west tip facing the Tasman Sea. They warn you about the weather conditions, particularly about how quickly the conditions can change from clear blue skies to thick cloud and snow within a few minutes. Got ourselves prepared with plenty of clothes and of course cheese sarnies, cheap and tasty! We looked like two hikers, or as close as we're ever going to get to it! Decided to do the Summit Track and went as far up as we could without needing proper climbing gear. Stopped at a couple of lookouts on the way up before the real ascent started, we could see Mt Tongariro, Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe in the distance, approx 200 miles away, this is quite rare to see apparently so our lucky day. Carried on going up a gravel track, no exaggeration it must have been a 45 degree incline for about an hour, talk about exercise! Should have burned a few hundred calories! We're starting to get calfs like Jono Lomu! Wasn't long before all the views, everybody else and anything more than 20ft away disappeared. Ah! This is what they meant about changing conditions! The wind was howling and the temperature plummeted to freezing. James got all excited thinking it was awesome that he was up in the clouds, in a world of his own. Lauren wasn't quite so excited about the prospect of spending the next few hours sitting it out! It's amazing how cheese sarnies can make you feel better during a time of crisis! All James said was "What an unbelievable experience!" All Lauren kept saying was "Who's silly idea was this JAMES?" Anyway, we kept going and came across the site of the lava flow from the last eruption. An area of ash and pumice sloping down the side of the volcano and we had to get across it. It was like walking on a bed of dust and what with the cloud engulfing us it felt really eerie, like we were the only ones left after a big disaster, but trouble was we were! Hmmmm! A few hours later the carpark was in sight, just poor old Karl left. But what a great day, still can't believe we were that close to the summit of a volcano! Fantastic!

Arrived in Taupo on 21/5, this is pretty central of the North Island and has the biggest lake in NZ. It's similar to Queenstown, party town of the North and plenty of crazy activities. While we're on that subject i have some sad news for you all. Due to ridiculous regulations in NZ the weight limit for a skydive is 100kgs (15st 8lb). Unfortunately due to excessive consumption of Australian beer, cider, cows and pigs with the odd locally grown root vegetable, i exceed the unbelievably low weight limit and therefore have been refused the right to jump. I even offered to do it in the nod but this was also unsuccessful so unless i nip over to Delhi for the weekend... i think you know what the answer to that is! It ain't gonna happen. Gutted. Lauren keeps telling me how good it is but i'll have to wait til i get home. Gonna have to settle for zorbing and perhaps more jumps off cliffs, etc.

Anyway, dry your eyes, back to the update. We're staying in Taupo while we wait for the weather to clear so that we can tackle our next conquest, the Tongariro Crossing. It's a 17kms (6-8hrs) walk across the active Tongariro volcano. We've been waiting since last Monday to do it but it's been closed due to bad weather as it's too dangerous. It's rated one of the best things to do in NZ so it's worth the wait! In the meantime we've kept ourselves busy by seeing the thermal areas between Taupo and Rotorua. All the area from Taranaki through Tongariro to Rotorua and out into the sea is a major fault line where two plates in the earths crust meet, which is why all these areas are volcanically and geothermally active. See we are learning some important things! It's really strange that you drive along a road and to the left and right there's steam coming out of everywhere bringing with it that horrible smell of sulphur.

We visited Orakei Korako - The Hidden Valley, a thermal area north of Taupo full of steaming craters and silica terraces, erupting geysers and bubbling mud pools. Great views but absolutely stinks of rotten eggs (sulphur). Strange to see all these cracks and holes in the ground with steam and mud coming out of them and knowing that it's caused by pressure and heat within the earth! Weird. We also visited another area known as Craters of the Moon. It's one huge crater about 2kms in diameter full of smaller cracks and craters with steam and mud bubbling up out of them. Totally different to Hidden Valley but still a very eerie place, hopefully you'll see what we mean in the pictures!

Hopefully you lot back at home are enjoying hearing about our journey. It's hard to explain sometimes what we've done or seen but hope you get the gist! The last month or so has certainly been a great experience and an eye-opener into the way the world is formed. We've been lucky enough to see it first-hand and had experiences we'll never forget. Luckily enough we've still got loads ahead of us too!

That's all folks, take care.

Jim and Loz xxx