Saturday 29th July - Yes, Matamata is where Hobbiton is from Lord of the Rings, we are that sad!! So arrived the night before at the campsite to be confronted with this massive maori guy! He was really friendly and only wanted to talk to us because his son now lives in England and he used to play rugby for Wigan in the 80's! Anyway next morning we went on a coach to the farm and area where all the hobbiton scenes were filmed (see pics). It's was all a bit co...

Friday 28th July - GLOW WORMS!! doesn't sound that exciting does it?! but it's such a popular place to come for the caving and the glow worms(apparently should be glow maggots but that doesn't seem to sell them as well for some reason?!?) So we booked on a trip to go to see the glow worm caves and found we were the only ones booked on! the advantages of being in winter! unfortunately we were told our guide, Norm, was a little deaf and very old! Think it was ...

Hello!! Well we're finally back to civilisation! Just in Hamilton at the moment, it's a city about 100km south of Auckland, so I better fill you in on what we've been up to for the last few days... Saturday 22nd July - Picked up the campervan!! Exciting stuff! It's pretty big and was quickly christened Bertha! or big bertha when she can't hear us!! Decided to get on the road straight away and made the short drive up to a town called Whangerie after stocking ...

Hi guys, its my turn to write today as Pauls engrossed in football 365...how he's going to cope when we leave here I dont know! Hope you're all enjoying the weather, from what my mummy says, its baking! Well, you'll be glad to know that its p***ing it down here! Lovely! We've added some more photos for you to look at in the Aucland file but my camera battery ran out at the zoo :( Despite the rain we've still made the most of our last few days in Auckla...

So here we are in Auckland. We've been here since Monday but only set this site up just now so I better fill you all in! After the flight from LA in first class we arrived in Auckland about 8am. Sensibly we should have slept on the flight but then we would have missed out on the free drink and gourmet food offered to us! So we grabbed a shuttle bus to our hostel. It's incredibly central, brilliant location. The picture to go with this entry shows you the vie...