Today we woke early after a very disturbed night. Some other campers were noisy, the van rattled, the mobile rang, Alex woke up and then a siren went of at 7am.

Breakfast was croissant and a strangely called Belgian pain au chocolat. We were on the road just after 9 having arrange a tour in Matamata and accomodation for Rotarua. We then did a quick shop at Woolworths and were on the road proper by 10. The aim of today was simple, to get south of Auckland.

We stopped at the Kauri museum in Matakahone and initially we were concerned that the girls would not enjoy it but they soon thawed out and loved it. It was a fab musuem and well worth the visit as it displayed life at the time of the gumdiggers with room sets including mannequins modelled on local descendants of early settlers. The girls partiulary liked the the boarding house and spent a long time in it.

The gum room had a lot of gum in it and the girls found it cold and boring.

After this the girls played on a small park which paid typical NZ attention to health and safety matters. While David watched the girls I had a quick look at the post office which was operational until 1988 and the pioneer church. After this I made a picnic lunch for us all.

We then headed off pausing only to have a quick look at the Dome outlook point and to pay the toll at the new road. Early days yet but cash payment is not working properly yet. The traffic became heavy pretty early on and stayed heavy through Auckland and out the other side. We have stopped here for convienience rather than any desire to see anything local. we have glimpsed NZ largest theme park.

I have been told that NZ is like 1950s Britain and I think that is probably an unfair description. There is certainly a sense of community and small town living which is more akin to it but it is most definately a 21st centuary country. EFTPOS (Visa) is widely accepted, even in the smallest of shops. WiFi is pretty common too and yet one place we visited did not get an automated exchange until the 1990s.

The smells are also very different here and in particular the grass is fragrant in places, it almost smells like Chammomile.