Hello!

We finally got a car after a week of searching in Auckland & drove out up to Waipu on Wed 18th. Car's an automatic so not so used to that! especially on hill starts! We discovered our first beach which was great and nice to get onto the sand. after a couple of days in and around waipu we headed up to whangerei. it was quite a big city so a bit of a change from waipu which was literally one street! we went to explore the caves and waterfalls and bought a tent to camp in (to save some money on accomodation!) we went up to Puketi Forest for our first night of camping and cold showers! not so lovely. we went on a nature walk & saw some Kauri trees... they are pretty huge and apparently dying from some sort of disease. Anyways, we then headed up to Cape Reinga to see the lighthouse and be at the top of the north island. we stopped along the way at a few scenic spots and Coopers Bay for an ice cream. the last 20 km of the Highway 1 was literally very large rocks with a suggested speed of 50km/h. we did 10, maybe 20 km/h because we didn't want to harm angela (our car!). we made it up, it was pretty misty but it brightened up which was nice. we then headed to a campsite in Rarawa near to the beach. there were two other cars there but we pitched up anyway. at 1.30am rach woke up hearing something moving through the grass.... we later after a bit of freaking out by rach, found out it was a lonley possum passing through! (a small rodent like creature, about the size of a cat without the tail!) later that day we drove to Trousmann Park campsite where we thought we'd get a hot water shower... no luck because of problems with the water tank so we got to stay for free. we met a nice american couple (mark and misty) who are very keen on the widlife. they'd been on a nocturnal walk but come back to put some red film over their torches (apparently kiwi birds don't pick up on the light when it's red). we joined them with our torch, and headed in. we saw hundreds of glow worms in fallen tree stumps which was beautiful. like looking at a really clear night sky. we'd been searching for a while to find some kiwis, we'd heard them calling to their mates very near to us but we couldn't see them. as we were about to go back to the camp site rach nearly stepped on one! it was only about 80cm away from her feet. it was amazing, not really phased by the fact that we were there, and we watched it for about 10 mins or so before it disappeared out of sight. then today we drove down from the campsite back to auckland for a stop over at the same hostel we stayed in before. tomorrow we're going to head to the corramandel, then to rotorua, then taupo then to hawkes bay. we'll add another long post when we can. till then, keep us posted with all your news! we want to hear something from back home too!! lots of love from both of us xxxx