New Zealand North Island so far.....

Auckland/Orewa/Coromandel Penninsula (North Island)
Unfortunately we have lost out on living Tuesday 21st June, gone forever so we hope nothing exciting happened!! 12 1/2 hour flight from LA to Auckland, we thought that this would be a horrible long flight but watched 3 movies, given fairly yummy plane food and a few cheeky drinks and before you know it we were landing on an island in the south pacific!

We are so excited to be here, it really looks and feels like home. The only things giving it away at the moment (obviously still lots to explore) are the palm trees mixed in with normal trees and the most spectacular rugged, tropical coastline you can imagine!

Our campervan is aptly named 'The Explorer', its a 4 berth campervan where we sleep above the drivers cabin so we dont have to fold down the table and chairs every night!!! The food and drink here is amazing ... we have already cooked some yummy meals, spag bol, scallops, tiger prawns - the food and drink is so much cheaper here, we bought 10 scallops today which were cheaper than tomatoes??!! We've also tried to drink wine each evening from the area we are staying in, its tough!

Its like we have stepped in to Autumn ... doesnt get light until around 7.30am, starts getting dark at 5.30pm and the trees are turning a golden brown! Its gorgeous!!!

The north of the north island has been beautiful, this island is all beautiful! Around 15 degrees for the first couple of days so not too cold but recently only 9 degrees but we've had lots of sun! Orewa was beautiful, campsite was on the beach, setting was amazing but at this point we still didnt feel like we were half way around the world! Its only when we set off for the Coromandel Penninusla staying in Hahei, this is beautiful, gorgeous rugged coastline, real Jurassic Park/Goonies looking stuff!! We visited Cathedral Cove which is this stunning rock formation on the beach, then of course we visited the famous Hot Water Beach! Unfortunately the day we chose to pop along, a coach load of hippy middle aged women accompanied by their grand master were frolicking in the warm water too leaving little space for us, they asked us to join in .... we declined and found a small romantic spot for us! Low tide was 6.40pm and being winter here the sun was setting, hire a spade from the campsite, dig a hole and you get warmed water from a volcanic reservoir located metres beneath the beach, some parts are scolding hot but its fascinating!!! As the sun set, Mike and Lucy style we get out our bottle of bubbly and enjoy a couple of drinks. The setting is amazing, the southern hemisphere stars were out, sky was clear and we could see a thunderstorm in the distance which was pretty dramatic - this was the best 'free' thing we did!!!