The day of our first game and the only Irish game we will see. I'm so excited it's unbelievable!! We headed up to a bar near the grounds for a few drinks and to watch the Australia v Italy game. After that we were off to the grounds to see the game. Not a bad one by all accounts as we managed a win but not good enough if we want to go all the way! We finished off the evening with a few more drinks (probably weren't required but still!). RWC is here!!

We made our way from Sandspit to New Plymouth today, we pretty much stopped once for fuel and once for packed lunch! Towards New Plymouth the road suddenly seemed to be full of camper vans which became a huge convoy mostly displaying the colours of the Irish flag. When we got to New Plymouth we managed to secure a brilliant spot right on the water front beside the 'wind wand' (a completely ridiculous looking piece of modern art) near the centre of town. We met ou...

Howellsey was up at the crack of dawn to hike to the Cape from our campsite. As it is a one way trail (shame!) I had a little lie in and went up to collect Ian at the cape. The Cape is where the Maori believe their ancestors leave for the afterlife and it is also the meeting point of the Tasman sea and the Pacific Ocean. There's a cool light house there and some amazing views. We did a short cliff top walk and then headed for the Te Paki sand dunes. These were li...

Today we drove up the coast to Cape Reinga. It was a very long drive through miles of fruit orchards and beef and sheep farming country with occasional small towns en route. The scenery was beautiful and the roads winded past silica spits and glimpses towards the east coast. We stopped at Coopers beach for a walk along the sand and a view of the spectular pohutukawa trees (pronounced poo-hoo-ta-ka-wa or something like that - Nicole?) also known as the Kiwi Christ...

What an amazing day!! We were up early to catch our boat which was not the quiet chugger I was expecting. It was a cool catamaran which bounced and bombed it's way into the Bay and over to the town/port of Russell to pick up some more people before we were on our way proper. The Bay was beautiful and the islands were really pretty and ranged from tiny rocky islets to massive islands with $11 million homes on them! We didn't spot any dolphins or orca unfortunately...