December had arrived in New Zealand and there was no more excuses; where the hell was summer! We were getting nervous, after the rain and mud chaos of our last road-trip with the Roberts in England, we had been promising them better and drier visit this time around. There was two weeks of camping, hiking, caving and sightseeing planned; not much fun in torrential rain. Every night we prayed to the sun-gods, and finally, the day they arrived, the sun came out.
　
But before we settle into the Robert's Kiwi Adventure program, we had two weeks to fill in before our guests arrived. During this time we welcomed Colby to New Zealand, all the way from Seattle. Ollie and Colby went on a surf exploration and found a glassy beach break at Mahia, on the south east coast of Gisborne. They also found some freezing cold lefts which they shared with the sea lions at Cape Palliser, and the legendary points on the Surf Highway 45 in Taranaki.

While Ollie was off surfing, Shay and her cousin, Evie, set off on their own road trip down to Wellington to meet up with Pammy for her birthday. With the Pajero packed and filled with diesel, they switched on the road trip play list and headed south. On the way we managed to visit a long lost friend in Fielding (Ken McDonald from the old Benchmark days), visit Hatu Patu's rock (for old times sake), see Mount Ruapahu (and nearly drive off the Desert road in excitement), hunt for the Bull at Bulls and pose in front of the mighty gumboot at Taihape. Our last stop before hitting the capital was in Levin to stock up on wine to last the entire weekend (which of course ended up getting drunk on the first night).

A Party for Miss P
　
Thankfully Pammy's awesome inner city apartment was easy to find so it wasn't long before we were settled in and cracking the first bottle of champagne. It was awesome to see Pammy again and of course she's as fabulous as ever! The next day Ollie and Colby arrived in Wellington as well and we prepared for the evenings festivities in the capital city. We all had a great night but to be honest, with the copious amounts of booze flowing, it's all a bit of a blur. It was also great to catch up with an old London friend, Justin, who came out to join in the fun. We stumbled home, which is only a few blocks away from the action of Courtney Place, in the early hours and continued on with a few nightcaps before passing out somewhere around 4am.

The next day was a subdued one. We relaxed on the balcony of the apartment and enjoyed some more champagne with a BBQ a-la Pammy. That night we strolled into town and down to the waterfront to sit under the new Christmas tree which has awesome visual effects.
　
It was around this time that our 88 Toyota Hiace camper started giving us some problems. Firstly two wheel studs broke off one tire and then the front brakes started catching which resulted in the steering wheel shaking like hell and a strong burning smell coming from the front wheels. We were heading to Hamilton to get Ollie's visa extension sorted, so we had to drop the van in to the first available mechanic to get it sorted out. The Roberts' were due to arrive the next day so it was important that it all got done there and then. We were dubious about the fact that we could only find one mechanic that could fit us in right away. It begs the question; 'why were they not busy?' At this desperate hour we had little choice so we had to swallow the cost and get back on our way.

The Roberts' Kiwi Adventure
　
We arrived on time to pick up Kev and Karoline from Auckland airport and were happy to see that the plane had arrived early and they should be out any minute. When they were located and packed into the van we set a course back to the Coromandel.
　
The first stop was the delightful seaside town of Thames. Kevin is friends with the owner of the Sunkist Backpacker, Craig, so they promised him a visit. It was a quick trip down to the small colonial town so we were soon cracking our first Steinlagers of this journey while Craig had the barbeque cranking.

The next day we introduced Kev to the Warehouse - 'Where everyone gets a Bargain'. We stocked up on everything we would need to keep these campers happy (plus some stuff that we didn't need but had to have anyway). Next stop was the neighbouring supermarket to get fully stocked with enough food and more importantly, beer, to last three days out in the Coromandel wilderness. We were now ready to hit the road back up to Fletcher Bay, where we had visited with Alfhild only a few weeks beforehand, this time we planned to camp at the awesome campsite and hike the three and a half hour Coromandel walkway to Stoney Bay.
　
On route to the tip of the peninsula we made a brief stop in Coromandel town to purchase Kev's all important cowboy hat and have a quick look around the attractive village. We got to Fletcher Bay with plenty of time to work out the tent (kindly lent to us by Doreen and Ken) and get a fire going. As the sun went down behind the hills, the temperature dropped and an icy wind whipped through the camp. We all rugged up and huddled in around the fire catching up on the year past and swapping camp-fire stories.
　
There and Back Again
　
The next morning after a hearty breakfast, we all set off along the Coromandel walkway. This hike links up the two DoC campsites of Fletcher and Stoney Bay which is on the east side of the peninsula. It was a scorching hot day so we were not sure how far we would attempt to walk and initially set our sights on the look-out point roughly half way. On the way we encountered one seriously steep inclines downwards and then up the other side but other than this it was a fairly flat, relaxed hike so we decided to continue on to the end. Three hours later we were happy to have Stoney Bay in our sights but the thought of having to walk all the way back again made us wonder if we'd been a little too keen! We spent the next hour or so relaxing on the grass at Stoney Bay and getting to know the curious local ducks who were keen to help us out with our lunch.
　
The return journey was not as traumatic as we thought it would be and we managed to get back to camp in record time. Back at camp, the cold beer was definitely a welcome sight as we kicked off our hiking boots and settled our weary bodies down for the final night at our Fletcher Bay campground.
　
The next day we drove the pohutakawi line road back to Coromandel Town and then headed across land to Cathedral Cove. It was getting later in the afternoon so we hiked quickly down to the cove where Shay and Karoline attempted to sun themselves in the dying sun. Ollie and Kev shimmied into their wetsuits and attempted a cold water snorkel around the caves, getting in the way of some passing kayakers in the process.
　
That night we set up camp at the Hot Water Beach holiday park with the intention of getting up at 4am to dig our own little hot water pool and watch the sun rise. The next morning, true to our word, we got up early and drove down to the beach. The tide was coming back in so we had to move fast. As we got closer to the digging spot we could make out a couple already enjoying the hot spring; we were soon to spoil their romantic morning soak. We threw our stuff down and enthusiastically started digging holes up and down the beach, after 5 minutes of digging and finding no hot water things started to get a little frantic. It started to become apparent that the only hot spring was where the relaxing German couple was. As our hot water exploration inched closer and closer to their little pool, they soon decided it was time to pack up and head home. With the Germans out the way, we invaded their hole and sizzled our backsides in the extremely hot water until the incoming tide forced us out.

The next place of interest was Whangamata. Ollie was keen to see if he would be lucky with some of those quality waves this little town is famous for. Unfortunately the sea was a flat as a lake on arrival so we busied ourselves with some shopping in the numerous surf-shops and meeting some of the locals at one of the bars. The town was pretty quiet but that would soon change with the Christmas holidays just around the corner.
　
The next day, Ollie and Kev had low expectations on having any surf but were excited and amazed to find that the swell had picked up over night and line after line of perfect 4 to 6 foot glassy waves, with a strong offshore breeze, were hitting the bay. They were into their wetsuits like a flash and back down to the ocean as quickly as possible to enjoy the fun surf. The boys were stoked on their surf session and it was now that Kev decided that Whangamata must be renamed to 'Kev-ville', in honour of his favourite New Zealand town.

Going against all the rules of driving away from good surf, Ollie decided to leave Whangamata and head to Raglan. It proved to be a bad decision as we soon left the sunny happy east coast and entered the cold and grey west coast region. The surf at Raglan was small and windblown so we stayed one night then moved on to Waitomo the next day.
　
Into the Deep
　
The caves at Waitomo have been on our list of 'things to do' for a long time and we were happy that Kev and Karoline were excited to experience them as well. We booked onto the Labyrinth tour which was four hours of blackwater rafting through the Ruakura cave. After introductions we were set up with some pretty hideous looking wetsuits, hats and shorts. We then loaded up into the wagon, with Monkey at the wheel and inspirational Monkey music on the wireless. Now Monkey probably needs further explanation. Monkey was the name of one of our guides. He is a young Kiwi dude who had the most impressive mullet we have ever seen. The scary thing about Monkey is that we had recognised him from the pub the evening before and also as one of the hooligans doing drunken donuts in the middle of the night in the field by our campsite; this hardly gave us piece of mind knowing that this guy was responsible for our safety deep down in a dark abyss!

When we pulled into the car park by the opening to the caves our first task was to be fitted with our tube; it was important that the inner tube fitted out backsides for comfort and safety reasons. We then practised hurling ourselves off a jetty backwards into the freezing river and then our training was over and we were heading off down into the unknown.
　
It was actually quite intimidating climbing down through a narrow crack in the earth and into a pitch black cave but after a few minutes our eyes adjusted to the light and we could see what an amazing place we were in. Over the next couple of hours we walked through caves, ducking under the stalactites. We threw ourselves off underground waterfalls, watched the glow-worms illuminating the cave walls, and floated serenely down the underground river and through the most amazing cavern of the Ruakura cave. The final leg of our journey was made in complete darkness; we navigated our way through the cave, not knowing where each other was until we could see a crack of light from the caves exit. It was sad that our journey was at an end but we were all freezing as well so a hot shower was definitely a happy thought.
　
Once again it was time to head back to Tirau. Christmas was around the corner and Shay had promised to be around to help with preparations and Kev was looking forward to meeting the Tirau locals and seeing the BIG tin sheep in person. We all loaded back into the hiace and set our course for home.....