We both had a great sleep. I am sure it was because we were both exhausted from the long drive south yesterday. More fireworks last night as NZ celebrates Guy Fawkes Day. Woke up at about 5:50am and went for my shower. First time Gary hadn't been to the showers before I had mine so I had to wait until the hot water got to the shower. We left the campground about 6:15am behind a procession of at least 10 Maui maggots. We think it was a convoy of maggots being tran...

Up early again to clean up the maggot and pack all our belongings. No trouble getting to the Apollo campervan stir but discovered there were quite a few people there to pick up maggots so we had to wait for a while to be processed. Gary and Sunni tried to get the shuttle to the airport but the guy was having none of it until our van was checked. The owner told me they were processing 42 vans that day. Their lives were not made simpler with this one fellow who sto...

Not much to report today. We stopped in Thames to walk down the Main Street. A very interesting little town with a gold mining background. It was Farmers Market day and for many blocks, the vendors had their wares set up along the sidewalks in front of the stores. In some cases the goods were in direct competition with the store owners wares. Very accommodating!! The trip back to the area around the airport was not very long. We passed by mainly farming areas. Lo...

Last night was very interesting as a storm went through HaHei and as we were on a shelf overlooking the sea at the campground, we were buffeted with strong winds and rain. The storm was long gone in the morning and we woke up to a golden glow from the rising sun and Jean covered in bites from sand flies which had apparently found her to be a delightful morsel when she was in her little hot water pool at Hot Water Beach. Fortunately Sunni had some Benedryl so Jean...

We were up early today so that Jean could go and dig herself a hole in Hot Water Beach at low tide. She said there were lots of young people there digging holes to take advantage of the hot water stream that flows just under the beach surface. The temp was 64c but she dug close to the ocean so that there was a cooling effect from the ocean water. I don't think she got totally immersed in the pool although her hair was wet. We then moved a couple of kilometers nor...