Hello, or should I say, Kia Ora!

Now then, where do I start? It's been a while since we logged on!!! A lot has happend since we last spoke, so here goes - in a nutshell.

Spent a week in the Northland and went to the most northernly tip of the North Island. Within this week, we saw the most amazing scenery ever! It was fantastic. The place was so remote, we hardly saw any life for days. We camped in the back garden of New Zealands most Northernly Tavern (we obviously had to sample some of it's fine larger while we were there!) but in the morning, poor old Smurf wouldn't start! We were incredibly lucky that there was one more couple staying in their caravan and as luck would have it this man knew about cars. So bit by bit Andi and Tony took apart the engine......cleaned the spark plugs and fiddled about. In the end we solved the problem, but how lucky were we that it happened then cause after this pub there is nothing, and I mean nothing further north for a couple of hours (with really bad roads) and we would have been well stranded. But we got there and back ok.

After the northlands we watched cricket in Auckland before heading over to Rotorua. This place is pretty cool but my goodness it stinks!!!! It is full of bubbling pools of water and mud - whose main ingredient is sulphur, so it smells like a load of stink bombs have been set off in the town. But we did do some pretty cool stuff. We went Zorbing and what a laugh that is! It was fantastic. Who would have thought that climbing into a large inflatable see through plastic ball full of water and rolling yourself down a big hill would be so enjoyable! We also went to a working Maori village and saw how they lived and had some Hangi food (food cooked by the natural method of steaming from the hot pools - very tasty). Then friends, Chris and Kat came to join us and the boys tried to kill themselves by going down a louge - no deaths or great injuries but apparently they had fun trying. We also had a mud bath before we left to head south. It wasn't like a mud bath like you might imagine, it was sitting in the bath full of the 'healthy' water and the 'healthy' mud in it, so it was runny. It last 20mins and although we were sceptical, Andi said his skin hadn't felt so beautiful in all his life!!!!!

From Rotorua, we went to Waiotapu, which is the big place full of the hot pools, Geysers and streaming coloured lakes (cover photos of this blog). It was pretty amazing to see nature at its best, but a lot of steaming pools means a lot of smell. I've never experienced anything like it, I felt positively sick most of the day, but I suppose looking back on the photos it was worth it, but I won't be rushing back anytime soon! From here we drove through Taupo and stopped off at an amazing water fall and then went upstream for a swim in the fresh water. It was freezing, but as you can imagine quite refreshing after sleeping in Smurf and stinking of Sulphur for 4 days!

We then arrived in Napier to stay with Karl and Terry for a few nights and boy, did we get looked after!?!?!?!? They cooked us loads of food (bbqs of course!), supplied us with booze and more importantly, with hot running water, a toilet and very comfy bed! Napier is really nice. The town centre has a good feel to it,and the sea front is very scenic, but the best thing is, due to it's massive supply of apples and grapes, there are lots of brands of cider and a lot of wineries! Karl took us to a great place where you get a menu and select which drink you want to try. You place the cards in the front of the holder and then they bring you out a half pint of each. You get 6 choices, all for only $10 (about 4 quid!). We could have stayed there all day - but no no, cricket called! This had to be the best game so far though, mainly cause the sun was out all day, and we sat on the grass bank, drinking and eating, and I didn't actually have to watch any cricket. It ended up a draw anyway - kind of makes me think, why bother playing for 8 hours for nobody to win, but oh well, I'd a good day anyway!

So from Napier we drove over the mountains (again, great scenery - I think we'll be using that phrase a lot here!) and into Wellington. Weird things seem to have a habit of happening and last night was no different. Desperate to see some of the 6 Nations rugby, we finally found a pub which was going to be open for it. Now the first strange thing, was that it was a Welsh pub - don't get many of those abroad! The second strange thing, was that it used to be public toilets! And is situated on an island in the middle of the main road - so strange. Great wee pub though. We really wanted to watch the Ireland game, and the England game, but we though, the heck with it, in for a penny in for a pound, and decided to watch the Wales game too. So we went to bed at 8pm and got up at 3am to walk to the pub fo the first kick off at 4am - and didn't leave until about noon! Surprising how easily beer goes down at 6am in the morning. The pub had just stayed open all night so it was funny to watch the casualties from the Sat night out, roll in to watch the game and then swifty fall asleep in the corner. So we're just staying one more night here (before heading to the South Island), so we can go to the travel agents in the morning. We're going to see if we can change our flights etc and stay out here for longer. Don't really have the time or space to express how great this country is, but basically we don't want to leave!!! Andi has seen that the All Blacks have a couple of jobs going - I vote we just stay!

(wow...just looked through the photos and realised there's quite a bit I forgot to mention...like the Kauri museum - massive trees! And the volcanic black beach... walking up an old volcano... our fabulous campsites...the best public toilets in the world (and I don't mean the Welsh pub) .... Maori battleground...fresh muscles....buildings that are dogs and sheep (got to be seen to be believed!)....and more...but I"ll label all the photos when I put them on!!!)