Hello all,

Firstly, we have uploaded a few albums so many of you may have not seen our Skydive photo's, so dip back into time and select these to see!!!

There are not photo's yet but will be uploaded soon. 1 week left in New Zealand or as my mum said to me on the phone the other night, 6 weeks until I come home!!!

Saturday 15th March

We left out mini love caravan and headed for the "Lady Knox" Geyser spout out @ 10am, we wondered around the Waiotapu thermal underworld park where we saw some wierd things created by nature. You will see the photo's. The Lady Knox required some assistance to spout out but when it did it was really cool.

We drove further towards Whakatane and stopped of at Hell's Gate which is the only mud spa in the country. Charlotte and I slapped the mud on from head to toe before being taken into the spa to wash it all off. We were there for an hour at it was worthwhile. The hot mud is created by natural thermal warmth from the ground.

We got to our hostel in Whakatane ( The Bay of Plenty) and managed to check out the Iron Man life guard challenge at the beach in the afternoon.

We went to Whakatane as we booked a ferry to take us to a live volcano in the middle of the sea called White Island. Apart from that Whakatane is like a ghost town. We ended up at the local cinema that night to watch Vantage point (Good to see) and we were 2 of 9 people in the place. We are talking Saturday night!!!!!

When we went to sleep after midnight 2 tipsy Moiri girls came into our room by mistake and put our light on, what a fright they must have got with a tired Iain face and messy red hair all over the place!!!

Sunday 16th March

Our trip was cancelled due to strong winds, so we decided not to hang around and headed for Mt Maunganui (Man in a goonie is the way I say it). The weather was really nice so we sunbathed a bit around our pool at the caravan sight before walking along the beautiful white beach into town. This place was more happening. A wee cheeky starbucks as well. Charlotte has now converted me into having them and it ain't good for the budget!!!

At night we also went to the beach and watched some guys participate in Kitesurfing. Really cool stuff, never know might have a go!!!!

Monday 17th March

We started this day with a 4k run to the bottom of Mt Maunganui and then climbed to the 700 meter summit. Views were spectacular, The locals said you can't say you've been to Mt Maunganui unless you climbed it. On the way back down I tried to catch larry the lamb but it wasn't happening.

We then ran 4k back to our caravan and boy our legs are hurting today. We thought we would do it all in a oner to avoid 2 showers!!!!!!!!

We decided to chill at the beach so I hired a body board and a wetsuit and spent 1hr 30 mins surfing the waves while Charlotte topped up the tan. We hopefully might get a tan now the weather is better but who knows. Oh Yeah a crab nipped my foot!!!!

St Paddy's day so we went to the local Irish pub to soak up the atmosphere and have a little drink. I don't like guiness and they had no Irish cider so Speights it was. C had a shot of Lepracheun F**K, what ever that was but she liked it and a Lady's Archers!!!

Some people were dressed so funny.

Tuesday 18th March

Today we travelled very early in the morning up the coast to Hot Water beach in the Coromandel. It is called hot water as the ground under the sand radiates heat to warm up the water. We hired a shovel for $5 and went on our way to dig a whole. I dug 3 as I couldn't work out how far down I had to go before it got hot. Know one told me there were hot spots you needed to find. Blisters on my hands, Charlotte found the easy approach and dug her feet into the sand and found the heat. It was boiling and would burn your feet. A lot of people were hogging the small spot with big man made spa's. I wanted to throw sand back in their holes as they were gloating but C swayed me back to my better side.

We sunbathed a bit, well I built a huge sandcastle. C has found another use for me later in life. Chief Sand castle builder and supervisor for the future kids we have.

For lunch we headed for Catherdral point lookout. We decided not to walk the 40 mins to the natural wall formation as it's kinda the same as the Great Ocean Road but we did have lunch at the top which was nice.

Tonight we eventually reached Auckland, traffic was murder. We don't stop here for long as in the morning we head to Pahia in the Bay of Islands and further north for 3 days before heading back to Auckland.

It will be my Mother and Father's 30th Wedding Anniversary on the 24th so have a good one when it comes. I on the other hand will not be celebrating as much this year as big bad 30 is round the corner in October. Still 21, Still 21, Still 21 I keep saying, will I be saying that when I am 50, who knows!!!

We will update you soon with the rest of our travels and my lovely secretary Charlotte will soon be uploading photo's in the next 3-5 days!!!