We drove from Hot Water Beach on the Coromandel to Raglan on the West Coast. We had seen this place in the Lonely planet and fancied going there. We also were really craving a nice comfy hoody as we were sick of wearing our horrible fleeces that only reminded us of freezing our arses off in the tent in the US, so we knew that there would be some surfy type shops as Raglan is a pretty famous surfing area. We had really struggled in the other places to find clothes shops which is weird compared to the UK we are so used to being able to nip out for anything we want any time.

The first night we arrived we just nipped to the beach cooked some food and relaxed, this driving is quite hard work with very windy and winding roads, Becky actually said she would cry when she saw the M6 again haha.

The next day we went to some world famous surfing beaches of Manu bay and Whale bay, and just our luck there was no surf wat so ever. We were pretty jealous of all the amazing houses we saw around the area (one close to town actually had a slide going from the deck into the river, yes you read it right a SLIDE!!) it was pretty dull and rainy so no chance of topping up the tan!

After that we went into town to shop for food and look for some cosy jumpers, we find that food is pretty expensive and we can't eat as fresh as we would at home it is cheaper to buy pre made pasta sauces than making your own from scratch much to Ash's disgust! There was a nice relaxed feel to the town and lots of backpackers around so we went for some beers and wandered into some cool shops. In one antique store we saw a dinner set made in Stoke for $595 and it wasn't even nice or a famous company! Ash is now thinking of car booting and exporting over here haha! We found the hoodies that we were after and headed back to van as it started to chuck it down. We had to buy wifi (quite a shock after always having it free on camps in the US) and we watched Harry Potter online which was a real luxury! Becky had a pretty bad sleep as there was bad wind and torrential rain and the van was rocking all over the place!

The next day we set off for Waitomo Caves, Ash convinced Becky that 'Black water rafting' was a good idea (He didnt tell her that you have to jump off a waterfall whilst in the cave). So it cost us $200 to do which is pretty cheap for a outdoor pursuits type day out compared to the UK, we got kitted out in very thick wetsuits, hard hats and chunky boots. We headed off to the cave and we stopped at this river and the tour guide told us what we had to do in the cave (jumping off a waterfall BACKWARDS!!) He then made us practice by jumping into a river from a platform, so we grabbed our innertubes(big rubber rings), which is what we would be floating down the cave river on and the tour leader volunteered Ash to do the jump first, he did it then had to wait down the river to catch Becky so she didnt get swept down stream. We then headed for the cave enterence and Becky kept telling Ash she would never listen to him again (she wasn't happy about the whole jumping off a waterfall backwards for some reason). Ash had to lead the way down this pitch black cave and not long after going into the cave we reached our first underground waterfall that we had to jump off. It was not as scary as Becky thought but when she came to the second one she nearly freaked out as the guide told us that there is a hole called 'the blender' that you can get sucked into if you do the jump wrong! It all went okay in the end and was great fun. The cave was slippery and everyone fell over at various parts and the water was pretty powerful in places but the best part was when we got to a big open part of the cave and turned off all our lights and floated slowly on our innertubes looking up at hundreds of glow worms. It is a pretty special thing to see and the whole thing was a great experience although not one that Becky would repeat in a hurry! Such a wimp!

We got free soup and bagels at the end to warm us up but unfortunately no photos as they don't let you take cameras in with you, the guide takes photos and then you have to buy them at the end what a rip off!

We were going to camp in Waitomo for the night but there was not much there and it was only 3pm so decided to drive on to Rotorua which was our next planned stop.