Hi Everyone

Sorry about being slack in updating the site but we've found travelling in a campervan to be very different to our travels to date. To ensure we see and do everything this amazing country has to offer we've been on the move everyday for the past 2 weeks! But here's a quick update on what we've done so far:

• After arriving in Auckland, Mead & Mands (a couple of friends from back home in Bristol) picked us up in our much larger than expected campervan. Luckily for us, but definitely not lucky for the couple who rented out our proposed van, they had driven into an underground car park which resulted in the van becoming a soft top!! We headed north and camped overnight in the Wiapora Forest (I think that's how it's spelt!). This is the home of the mighty Kauri trees which are over 2000yrs old and some have trunks over 17 metres wide!
• We then headed straight for the Bays of Islands where we took a helicopter ride over the islands and relaxed on the beach.
• Next on the agenda was Raglan, a small surf town south west of Auckland. We'd hoped to get there for the surf competition but unfortunately got there too late so we just crashed the party instead!
• Rotorua was our next port of call and was easy to find as it stunk of rotten eggs due to all the geo-thermal activity in the areas...mind you we'd gotten use to the smell of eggs due to spending time with Mead and his farts! Here we did the obligatory Mauri Village tour which was interesting, a white water rafting trip which was wicked before relaxing in some thermal mud springs. The mud springs seemed like a good idea at the time but ended up making us stink of eggs. Plus when we washed our swiming gear with the rest of our washing it has meant everything stinks of eggs!! Mead and Mands have washed theirs 3 times and they still stink!
• At Lake Taupo we had planned to tackle the Tongariro Crossing which is  meant to be the best 1 day trek you can do in NZ and home to Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings! However on the morning of the trek the weather was terrible and we could hardly see our hands iff we stretched our arms out in front due to the rain and mist. So we chickened out of the 9hr trek and headed straight for Wellington, the capital where we walked around the national museum and had a few drinks.
• After Wellington we caught the ferry over to Picton on the South Island. The weather had picked up and we all instantly liked the South Island. Here we planned to mountain bike the Queen Charlotte Track. It all started off well and we saw some amazing beaches and sounds until Meads peddle broke meaning we couldn't get any further. When we returned the bikes we fought to get all our money back but were unsucessful and were appalled at the customer service. So we plan to make loads of fake bookings for the remainder of our time in NZ!
• At Abel Tazman National Park we did a half day of sea kayaking which was awesome. We got within touching distance of seals some lazing about on the rocks and some were playing in the water and were very inquisitive! The whole place was stunning with loads of idyllic beach coves.
• We're now in the west coast which is where all the most impressive stuff is but since arriving all we've had is rain....and lots of it. But we're gonna battle on and are booked onto a ful day glacier tour tomorrow where we'll be going through ice caves and scaling ice walls...probably in the rain! Then we hit Queenstown for some jet boating and skydiving before doing a boat tour of Milford Sound and some swimming with dolpfins on the east coast.

That's it for now...we've realised with the weather and peddle incident it might have come accross that we're not having a good time here...but this is simply not the case! Every minute we are treated with the most impressive scenary and so many activities and tour options that we could spend a year here and a huge heap of cash and still not do everything!

That's it for now, we'll try and update some photos before we hit Fiji but it's difficult finding places with fast enough connections

Love to all

J&A