Helloo,

Sorry for cutting the last blog short but we had to run to catch the coach to Hobbiton! We spent the afternoon in the sun wandering around the hobbit holes and gardens - because they are still filming the Hobbit at the mo the set is still all covered in props and vegetables! It was beautifull, I may be changing our front door for a round one when we get home!

So after leaving Matamata we headed north toward aukland, stopping just outside the city to camp for the night. We caught up on washing and all the boring things for a while. Next morning we drove through Aukland - as we are going to be there for 4 days after we give the van back. About 20 mins north of the city we noticed a sign for a snow park . . . Well we missed out on the chance to do any snowboarding this year so chris has been chomping at the bit to see some snow - we stopped and went into the indoor real snow centre.

I drank coffee while chris went and played in the snow for a few hours. I'm sure when we get home and see snow again the novelty will wear off prety quick again.

So we carried on north till we got to a little town called Dargaville on the west coast. We spent the evening chatting with the families staying there and learned all about 'Kumara' a potato like vegetable unique to the area.

Next day we headed even further north to 90 mile beach - stopping on the way to see the 2000 year old Kauri tree that's NZ's oldest known and pretty massive tree - its 14 metres around the trunk! The roads to the far north were quite windy and tiring so we were glad to finaly make it to the beach. The only reason you can't see the end of the epicness that is 90 mile beach is because its just not physically possible to see that far! Its huge.

We crashed out for the evening and did some laying on the grass in readiness for our drive up to the north cape and back the next day. You are allowed to drive on the beach but our rental agreement dosent permit us to do so as people often lose their cars in sink holes and miss judge the tides . . . So we drove the main road all the way to the light house at cape reinga overlooking the meeting point of the Tasman sea and the Pacific ocean - you can actually see the sea's colliding!

It was pretty amazing stuff seeing the two seas beat against each other. Then we swapped drivers and shot back to the campsite stopping for a KFC on the way. Word to the wise take aways in this country come in Maori size (Chris was actually in pain after eating the meal for one).

This morning we left the site and drove to KeriKeri - New Zealands oldest town; where we are blogging from the library.

Team P