New Zealand Last few days

We have had the privilege of spending our last days in NZ at our friends Ross and Alice's. They were kind enough to open up there home to us and even take some time out of there schedule to show us around a bit. We spent a few days touring around Christchurch and surrounding area. A and I went out and wandered around downtown a few days, took in some scenery, window shopped, and watched some street performers in the city center square. We rented a car few days to see out farther than walking distance.

After doing a bit of research we found out where we could rent a crash pad and headed out to the amazing Castle Hill, outdoor bouldering mecca. About 1 hour drive out of Christchurch we spent a good 5 hours out here hiking around, trying and mostly failing at these amazing bouldering problems, a lot different feel to the rock than what we are used to at around home.

Next few days feeling sore from climbing we did lots of hanging out, relaxing, and milling around not doing much, we checked out an art exhibit at the art center, we went to the biggest outdoor concert in New Zealand history for the earthquake relief fund raiser.

We have had a good time in NZ but we are ready to move on, Tomorrow afternoon we fly into Australia, we booked our first 2 nights in a hostel, and we booked a car for a few weeks to travel between Adelaide and Sydney via the great ocean road.

Next post from OZ

Omaru...land of the Penguins

We left Dunedin in the morning and we had to stop at the steepest street in the Guiness book of world records,  Baldwin Street.  Was good at first then it started to increase in grade and the walk got hard.  After the whole day of walking and sand dune climbing the day befor let me tell you this was not going to feel good.  Ray started, I watched........then I better do a bit of this at least.   Ray said write I went half way but I believe it was further than half.
We left and went onwards towards Moeraki, which is home to the Moreaki boulders.  We parked and walked along a nice hard sand beach 10min.'s or so then we stopped to check out these cool round boulders.  Different reasons why they may have formed and Ray and I will go with the scientific version, seems more plausable then the tall tale.  Went to the cafe for some drinks and snack and made our way back for some campervan lunch.
We drove onto Omaru which had one tourist trap but it's a good one, the yellow eyed penguin and the smallest penguin in the world "the blue penguin".   The buildings in this area are really neat, mostly made out of limestone and sort or eery I thought, very Victorian feeling architechture.  We booked our time in the evening to see the blue penguins and the yellow eyed penguins you can go see on your own for free.    So we booked in to our site relaxed, ate and got dressed warm for the evening outdoors viewing all the penguins.  We headed out late afternoon to see the yellow eyed penguin.
When we arrived there were alot of tourists lined up along the railing all trying to get a glimpse of the little guys.  We walked along the path, waited, then a nice gentleman was lending out binoculars to people to view them coming in and along the bushes.  When we looked through them we saw quite a few, most of the crowd had dispursed also so it was nice as the night was creeping upon us.  Ray gave me a wave from afar and I walked down the path to meet him and realized there was a penguin right below the rail in the bush.  Very cute and very cool to see one so close.  The nice gentleman with the binoculars informed us all the be quiet and respectful, to try not to disturb them.  Meanwhile some tourist thougth we were at the movies or something and started eating chips, stupid.  We took lots of pictures watched for a long while then made our way to the place to watch the blue penguins.
Again lots of tourists, this is a pretty popular thing to see here.  We checked in and made our way out to the bleachers in the windy cold air along the ocean.  The announcer went over some information about the penguins and to do's and not to do's.  Around 8:20 the first raft, which is about 25 to 40 penguins in one bunch shaped like a raft, came in.  The little cuties scrambled up onto the rock ramp slowly, fighting the waves, when they all collected together they all wobbled up to the shore into there  manmade habitat for breeding just by the rock cliff.  We watched a couple rafts come in and make there way home for the night then we called it a night it was pretty chilly out.  These penguins are very cute and fun to watch.
The next day we pack up again and make our way onwards, we weren't sure where at first then decided to make our way to Christchurch, which is our last stop in our adventure in New Zealand.

Dunedin pronounced "Din -e- din"

After our breathtaking adventure to Milford Sound we made our way towards Dunedin, know for surfing, shopping, bars/cafes, cadbury chocolate factory and Speight's Brewery.   The drive was not all that interesting, but we got there in good time, good enough time to at least fit in the chocolate factory tour.  I mean if you have to pick one to try first might as well be all about chocolate.  When we first drove near it you could smell the chocolate, smelt so good.
We started the tour and the lady gave us some sweet head wear and beard one for Ray since he had not shaved in a few days.   hahahahah!!! Lookin' good honey!  The tour took us through some of the workings of the factory but who really was listening when all you wanted was more chocolate.  If you answered her questions right she gave you free chocolate.  There was a chocolate shot and even for me it was hard to swallow, was very rich tasting.  The only really cool part was the chocolate waterfall, 1 tonne of liquid chocolate falling 3 stories in 30 seconds, loud but smelled good and it splattered the stairs with gooey goodness. After the tour we thought we had enough so did not buy anymore in the store, but later as we got back to the van quickly realized that the ones they give you are not the best by far.  So guess we will have to stop by store again on the way out for some more.
We needed some groceries so did that and headed to our campervan site for the night.  Met a nice older Australian couple that love to travel and have been it sounds like for some time.  Had fun chit chatting with them, got excited to go to Australia next.  We woke the next morning to a nice sunny day and drove to the beach near by and watched some surfers try a few waves.  Pretty cool, looks like alot of waiting for the right place and wave to come about, and cold too.
We decided to continue on down the peninsula and see Lanarche castle, kinda nice but expensive for what it is.  We will see better in Europe so....then we made our way to the beach where you can penguin watch, but first you must climb down a steep sand dune and walk the beach littered with giant sealions.  Uhhh....sounds ok until after we made it down I realized we have to go back up later.
A long nice walk on the beutiful sand beach trimed wiht rugged roacks and crashing waves, we walked all the way down the the end making sure to give the sea lions a wide berth. We got to the penguin hide stood around abit and quickly realised we times it way wrong, they come ashore near sundown and it was mid afternoon. Dodging the sea lions on the way back we got to the ever daunting sand dunes we had to climb out. 2 steps forward, slide down one... this is going to be along climb. After finaly cresting the top, sore legs and out of breath, we took one last look down to aknowledege our acompleshment... or stupidity... depending how you look at it :p
Back at the van we drove around a bit on the peninsula and made our way back into town, we hitup the Speight's brewery to sign up for a tour, we just missed one so we headed out on the town for a few hours to check it out, we walked through a public art gallery, walked around to a few shops, stoped at Mc Cafe to update the blog and check the emails, we just happend to be near the Cadbury chocolate factory so we stoped in to top up our supplies. Walked down the the train station which is apperently the second most photografed building in the world next to the Sydney opera house.  Making our way back to the brewery we hung out for a bit until it was time for the tour. The tour was pretty cool, had a nice guide and they place was setup really cool for tours, when we reached the pub, we se toff on the tasting. Unlike the Moteith's brewery we did on the other coast whose beer was good across the board, Speight's is not, there is one good beer one ok beer and the rest are not to our liking. After being a bit buzzed as they let you pour your own as much as you like in the short time you were allowed in the bar we headed down the street for a decent pub style meal to to fill our bellys, drove to our van site and settled in for the night.

Milford Sound

We left Queenstown on a rainy day once again and drove ourselves to Te Anua which is about a 2 hour drive to Milford Sound.   When we arrived it was Sunday and nothing seems to be open on Sundays anywhere, wish North America would adopt that back, but it does suck when you need things.  We did find a small tourist information centre and asked about taking a tour to Milford Sound.  After a hot chocolate, coffee and some debate we decieded on a smaller tour company with a smaller boat for a decent price since we have a coupon too.  We collected our lunch for the next day at the grocery store and headed to our site for the night to prepare for the next days adventure.
The forcast was suppose to be nice for the next 3 days, so we went to bed hoping for the best.   Upon waking up we were blessed with a gorgeous day, not a cloud in the sky but friggin' cold.  Since we had left Queenstown the temperature had slowly gotten colder and the trips to the bathrooms in the night or early morning were painfully chilly.  The first thing we did was get dressed in some layers as it was maybe only 2 or 4 degrees out and I think Ray and I put on all of the clothes we had.  Thank god for our HH base layers, just didn't want to have to use them so soon into our trip. We ate, cleaned up, finished packing the daypack and made our way to the road for our pickup.
A mini van pulled up and we hopped in, headed back into town to meet up with the tour bus taking us into Milford Sound. Our tour guid/bus driver "Allen" grew up in the area and gave us a nice comentary as we drove into the sound (which is apperently really a fiord). We stoped at a few places along the way for photos and a bit of background about the area. Crossing through Hommer tunnel, we headed on down towards the Beautiful Milford sound. Amazing views of the vally, we wound our way down to emerge from the trees into a pictureesc Milford Sound. Shortly after deboarding the bus, checking in at the counter and paying we were guided out onto the boat which would be our photo platform for the next few hours as we traveled the sound. Considerd the 8th wonder of the world by some and the most buitful place on earth by others your expectations are not let down, some of the most breathtaking scienery we have ever seen and our photos, as good as they are dont do it justice at capturing the true beauty of the area.
On our trip of the sound we encountered a yellow eyed penguin, just a single one hanging out on the rocks, the smaller boat we chose to go on (holds 75 people, had maybe 25 on it) got in close to the shore and all of the people on board took turns snaping some pictures of the well dresed bird. Heading out the mouth of the sound we passed a pod of Bottlenosed Dolfins. "A's" eyes, and face light up even more than they were already from seeing the penguin, the boat made a pass through the pod, turned around and passed through again, pretty cool the dolphins were a bit curious and played with the boat a bit. We headed out to the open ocean on the front of the sound and made our way in a big arc around back into and down the other side of the opening. On our way back in the Dolphins all of a sudden became really playful and surfed in the boats wake for a long time, we cought some relly cool pics hanging off the front of the boat. "A" was supper excited when she heard the dophins talking to each other and using there blowhols to shoot water up onto us taking pictures. It was really cool watching the dolphins turn sideways and make eye contact, you can really see the intelegince behind the eyes.
Having been all played out the dolphins turned off, and we made our way on back, we came accros a few fur seals bathing in the sun having a lazy afternoon nap. The boat pulled upto the highest permanent waterfall in the sound, A and I stayed out on the front deck and got soaked as the boat put the nose of the boat under the waterfall, we had a good laugh and headed inside untill we were clear of the fall. Meandering around the coast we made our way back to the dock and deborded the ship, everyone getting off the boat had a huge smile on there face. One of the guides on teh boat said it is very rare to see dolphins less than 8% of the time they go out and even more rare to see all three animals on one trip. We had a geoargus sunny day which is rare in Milford which is the wetest place on earth with an average rainfall of 27 feet a year. The busride back was fast and we were tired from all the fresh air, we had a good sleep and great memorys to take with us.

Glaciers and puzzles oh my

We headed on down and hit the Glacier area of New Zealand.  They have two the Franz Josef and the Fox Glaciers.  We got in sort of late so we decided to make the pitstop here.  We stayed at a really nice looking van site called the Rainforest Holiday Park.  They really made it look like a rainforest everywhere, great theme.  It had grown a bit chillier now that we have gone higher into the mountains so more clothing was essential to put on.  Once settled in we skyped a few family members and ate some dinner and just felt really tired from all the driving.
When we woke the sky was clear which it wasn't when we arrived the day befor so it was going to be a nice day for a hike.  We drove to the Franz Josef Glacier parking lot and made our way down a short path to Peter's pool which was a reflection pool of the moutain ahead of us.  After some pics we walked down another path to the Franz Josef Glacier walk which starts as a forest walk into a vast open area where the glacier was a long time ago, then a lake now just rock and stone.  We took the path across and walked to the edge of the glacier as close as we could without a guide.  Which we thought of doing but we have spent alot of money here and we can see a glacier up close at home.
We drove through to a small town and stopped for some coffee for Ray and a hot chocolate for me, sat next to a nice roaring fire and kept moving on.  We drove quite a bit this day, and ended up in Wanaka, another lake resort type area, known for skiing and mountain activities.  So much like Banff but not really.  It is really nice here, the lakes around here are gorgeous and there is alot to do.  The weather has been incredible here too, no rain, we even rented a kayak today for an hour.  Forgot how much work it is for a full hour of paddling.
Earlier in the day we went to Puzzling World. We spent about an hour in a huge maze 2 levels tall, good old rule of left, we made it through and found all the 4 color toweres you were supposed to find. Headed on into the store to check out the cool books, games, puzzles, and posters. Going into the illusion area they had a bunch of those 3D hologram pictures hung up , the ones they sell at Spencers and there is a store in West Ed that sells them. They also had a illusion room where it almost looked square but one door was full hight and the other was quite small, kinda lame. The last room we went in was built on an angle, the gravety felt about 10 times more than normal becouse of all the illusions, everything was built level in the room but the room was tilted, very cool but you got a headach if you hung out in there to long as it throws your equalibrium out of wack.

West Coast

West coast
First stop the Seal Colony just outside Westport.  We were the first to get there that morning, headed up the trail and what a view from there.  Wide vast ocean in front of us with a rough coastline and seals littering the rocks below.  What big eyes you have!!!!  We stayed for awhile and noticed it getting busier so we headed back, but very fun to watch the seals.
We headed on to Punakaiki rocks and blowholes.  A hip hoppin' tourist stop for sure, we followed the path of people and saw the pancake rock formations which was very cool and one blowhole gave us a bit of a show.  The designed pathway was nice and fun to walk.  We made our way to the small tourist shop across the road where we tried on some the current possum fashions,lol.......what the heck is with this possum fashions here.  Funny though!  The shop had some beautiful art and jewellery in it though.  We moved on and headed south to Greymouth which is our other stop that day and final stop for the evening.
Once in Greymouth we remember there is a brewery tour and decide to go to the 4pm tour.  We get settled at the van and then head down to drink some brews.  Monteith's Brewery is small but we found that every kind we tried which was 6 beers, and 1 cider were good all across the board.  Even the red and darks were tasty and not too much.  After the tasters they give you a glass of you choice which by this point, things are fuzzier than walking in especially since we do not really drink much.  We bought some of the apple cider which was delicious and finished those off that evening making steak and potatoes with a game of pool.  Nice and relaxing, fun day.
In the morning we head off to the next town which is big for Jade and different stones/shell jewellery.  Hoitika, was cute we saw so much jewellery I think Ray was going to pull his hair out, we didn't decide on any and decided to have a nice lunch not one in the van.  There was a small cafe/cheese shop so we decided to eat there.  Man we were ever glad we did the lunch was amazing.  Had a roasted veg/pesto pita and pumpkin ravioli with a blue cheese sauce.  What a nice surprise, it was very very tasty.  After deciding not to stay in town we drove on and on and on till we hit Franz Josef Glacier village and stopped to stay the night.

to the south

To the South Island...
We stayed in Wellington 2 days one as noted befor was pretty much rained out sitting in the van, rained for over 24 hours straight, ridiculous!
We showered the night before and must have been excited to see the South Island cause we both did not sleep very well at all.  We got up at 6:30, ate, got van ready and we were off to the Blueridge Ferry leaving Wellington at 8 am.  We waited in cue and rolled on to the big boat and off we went, tired and foggy headed.  The boat was ok, we decided to sit inside and Ray read while I tried to play some bejewled, but the tired and not good sleep, plus I had been feeling a headache all week led to some motion sickness.  So I suffered the chilly air and found a semi-warm bench and watched the horizon.  It warmed up a bit and soon we were in Picton, the inlets were beautiful, the water bright green and lots of pretty hills and rocks.
We drove out right away and headed to Nelson, what a cute town, and huge sandbar.  Reminded me of White Rock, BC with Sylvan Lake, AB facilities and feel.   The ocean there was nice you can tell this area is a resort, vacation spot for sure.  We tried another market in the morning downtown and hit another failed dirty gypsey garage sale dump.   So we left......and drove on South to Richmond and stopped at a winery/olive estate for some tasting.  This was Ray's very first wine tasting and I think he liked it, maybe the food more but it was good and neat to do.
We drove on and stopped at the suspension bridge, which was not what I expected from one's I have seen in Canada.  UHHH....little shoddy construction and very small.  Ray made a comment that he did not trust it which I was glad he told me after we had finsihed it since I am paranoid about these things.  We drove and drove, turn after turn... until we hit Westport and stopped we were tired and hungry by this point.  We left Westport right away, not a very fun looking town, and our van site felt more like a dirty gypsey site so we did not want to stay any longer.

Wellington the Kiwi capital

Waitomo to Wellington....
We drove as far as we could towards Wellington then got tired so we stopped in Levin for a nice rest (2.5 days drive from Waitomo).  Actually a really nice campground, just kinda rolled into it.  We woke up to rain, and it rained, and rained....oh wait did I tell you it rained.   It did not stop raining for like 2 days straight.  We sat in the van in Wellington the first day, the next day we went to the Te Papa museum because it was raining and guess what so did the rest of Wellington and tourists and did we mentioned it was school break.
Today we woke up, Friday, to sun finally, and took the cable car to the botanical gardens, which was nice but the cable car is a rip off since you could walk it up and down no problem, or just take it up and walk down.  We bought a pass for return so we walked dowen teh trails, then walked up so we could use our return pass down.  We have been walking around the wharf, lots of reaturants, libraries,  and shops teh town of Wellington is quite nice a good mix of modern and old. We are not sure if we want to cross the ferry to the south island on Saturday or Sunday. Not a lot to do in Wellington and its very expensive, $20 just for the bus into town from the campground and back. We drove down the first day in the rain and paid $20 for parking for a  1/2 day.
Sofar we have seen the museum (rain day), rode the cable car, walked the park, and walked around looking at stores. We have decided to leave tomorrow (Saturday) to start the south island.

Cavers

Leaving Lake Taupo we had a long drive, as sort distances take way longer in NZ then they do back home, I have seen 3 straight roads in all of NZ and they were 1-2Km at the longest.
We followed a secondary highway along ariver with some more of NZ beutiful picturesc  scenery. Stoped for luch in a shithole town ate in teh van and headed off for Waiotomo caves a few Km away. We arived and it was to late for any cave trips so we settled into a campsite and booked or tour for the following day.
After the morning routen we headed down the Waitomo Adventures, to check in for our day of Blackwater rafting (tubing in underground rivers) We had a group of 9 and 2 guides. Piled into a van and headed off to the staging area. We all got outfitted into some wetsutes, helmets, and gumboots. And set out on a short hike through a farmers sheep feild to the enterance to our caveing adventure.
"A" was feeling brave and headed down the hole first, after sqeezing through teh opening she was told to lead on in and wait at the water marker... "ok...." I was second and I had to lower myself down the ladder with my hands as the hole was to small for me to step my big feet down the rungs of the ladder. Afeer sliding through a tight squeese to get into the cavern the guide toald me to head on off after "A" and wait for everyone. After stumbling throught the uneven rock floor I found "A" smiling from ear to ear waiting for me.
Once everyone was gathered inside and after a bit of a does and dont's we started caving our way down towards the underwater river following one of the guides. A few minutes of squeesing, ducking, crawling, in and out of water we got to another meeting area. Stoped for a head count and I was asked to lead for a while :) I plunged of with a smile on my face all the time taking in the amazing formations above and below, aswell as to the sides.  A quick stop to put mud on our faces for "camuflage" from the cave monster and one of the other girls was volentold to lead on down to the next rest area where we turned off our lights and checked out the glow worms NZ caves are famous for. After a few minutes of in the dark we were told to leave or lights off, turn to the left and put our hands on the person infront of us shoulder. We made a conga line in the dark and "A" got her foot stuck, while I waited for her the conga line went on without us... We cought up and started crawling as the roof was getting lower and lower, as we started going through a small hole "A" freeked a bit and turned her light on ony to find out the guides had everyone going through a small crawlspace when there was a perfictly good wide open walkway going the same place, we took the walkway.
A Little farther down we pickedup our tubes and climbing up onto a rock we held our tubs over our ass's and fell on back to a nice freezing cold splash, a laugh and all waited for everyone to board there tubes. Hooking feet to the next persons arms lights out we headed on down the river laying our heads back to enjoy the glow worms on the celing in the dark river. Once at the end we disembarked from USS Tube in the dark "A" being the most gracefull sliding off for a big splash. Some more caving and we stoped for hot drink and a snack.
We continued on with warm bellys over some really cool parts where our rcokclimbing skills came in handy as there were big holes we had to shimmy over and some ledges to side climb over to avoid getting stuck. When we reached our second bit of tubing we ended up smimming it as the water was really high and we wouldof hit our heads the whole way. Right at the last of the swimming was the scarryest part, with barely enugh room for your face we had to go feet first through a tunnel, head layed back and a face full of water ti was a bit freeky.
One pinball ally later, fast moving water feet first and arms crossed we saw daylight. Our time as cavers was over, one last sqeeze and we crawled out into the forest, hiked our way upto the hut to peeled of the wetsuit and have a hot shower.
Grinning ear to ear we made our way upto The Shearing shed where they have Angora Rabbits, we arrived just in time to see a Rabbit get shaved. Was a funny sight how fluffy these critters are and how silly they look shaved.. or half shaved as in this case.
We were wet, tired, bruised and hungry so we head onward to New Plymouth for the evening, nice drive but man are we tired and too old for crawling through holes in the ground.....

Rotorua....mud and rotten eggs...

Well, sort of....you know you are close when you smell the rotten eggs.
We rolled in to Rotorua and it was quite apparent where all the tourists were, they were not up the tip top of the north all here in Rotorua.  The information place was sure easy to find, picked up some maps, things to do and where to stay.  Found a quaint little place and settled in as the night.  The driving was getting to us so we stayed here for a couple days.   After a decent shower, food and rest we woke to head off to town and look around at some of the shopping, then we had our next plans to enjoy some geothermal highlight of the area.
Hells Gate was our destination, for a short hike around a volcanic geothermal area, then to some sweet hot mud where Ray and I covered each other in boiling hot clay colored mud.  This mud was actually nice to put on as opposed teh the Fiji mud, felt like silk on your skin as apposed to mud. They cook you in the mud for 20 minutes which is suppose to help with medical conditions such as skin problems/disorders, arthritis, aches and pains and so on.  It did feel kinda neat, then you shower off the mud and head towards the sulphur mineral baths and relax.  All this while you smell the rotten egg smell all around you.  We rinsed off and headed back to our campsite.
We have been watching Lord of the Rings as we travel along too, just kinda felt like the movie series to watch as we are surrounded by alot the scenery.
In the morning we packed up and headed down to the Gypsy Fair, dirty gypsys, wierdos, and a piercing shop in a gypsy van that screem hepititis, so we booked it outta Rotorua and made our way down towards Lake Taupo, just a pit stop on our way to Waitaimo caves which looks interesting.   We went to another geothermal walk with a cool cave, and saw a waterfall on the way.  Wishing everyday the weather would clear but nothing we can do about that, it had been raining since we got here with small breaks of sun if we are lucky once in awhile.  Caught a bad system over NZ when we landed and have been waiting for it to pass since.

There and back again a hobits... wait... a Twowanders tale... of Matamata...

Yeah that's right Ray and I have been to the Shire.  After a drive back down Highway 1 we turned off towards Matamata to go see some hobbits.  Before we got there we did stop at a wierd and interesting sculpture park, which was a conservation project for the last 20 years, going on 21 now....use to be an old quarry.  They have done a great job at restoring the area and some of the art was cool. But the flora was better than the sculptures.  Made for some cool photos for sure.
Short detour now onto Matamata, we thought we would go look at the Shire and do it the next day since it was getting late but we arrived just in time for the last tour.   OOOOHHHHHH so excited, I have been talking about seeing this since I knew we were coming to NZ, now we are here.  We have signed a clause agreement that we are not allowed to post pictures or tell about what we saw since they may be making a movie there or not in near future, hush, hush...it's no secret but hey I understand if I spent billions on these series of movies and such I would sue people for ruining it too. You will all just have to wait untill we get home to see the shire upclose.
We started out greeted by some little friends who go BAHHHHH....so cute, watched some sheep shearing and got to feed the hungry little guys who will probably be someones Christmas dinner here soon enough.  Made me a little sad I helped fatten him up.  Then on to the tour.  They have  a magnificient piece of land around the film setting, rolling hills so green, littered with sheep and stunning views.  I think that is all I am allowed to really write about that, the rest is for you to see later possibly.  Pretty cool thing to see, if your a fan, and we are.
We made our way to Matamata town, or as the sign says "Hobbiton", awesome, we found some hot spring pools and campervan site and they were water logged on the grass, so we stayed in there parking lot for the night and got to use the pools so it was ok.
Another restless night and rain and we made our way our again, Ray's sore back and all.....luckily we didn't have to go far, off to Rotorua, the most poplular tourist destination in the north it claimed and it was....

Kauri Forest

Once we left our farm early in the morning we headed for the ferry crossing, again the wind was insane.  The ferry was smooth considering the weather and we arrived in one piece with some laughs.
We have just finished our first week in the van and we have quickly realized it is not the way to go.  All of the campervan sites have self contained units, full kitchen and bathroom facilitys and usually a TV/common living area. If we could choose again we would opt for a car and travel much more comfortably, and cheeper on gas. With that being said it is handy to have somewhere to lay down easly, and we have cooked in the van quite a few times.
We headed toward the Kauri Forest, to scope out some of these magnificient trees and forest.  The first one was breathtaking and beautiful, then we made our way up to the hike area to the forest walk.  We were greeted by a friendly security man who stays by the cars at all time because of car break in, which he explained does not really happen anymore since they have been there.  The hike was easy and very pretty, this is definetly a sight to be seen and not missed if you go to NZ.  After our hike, we headed to the Kauri Museum which once again was alot bigger than we imagined.  Museums have been a shock, interesting, big and well done.  Lots of cool history about the forest and the trees.  Ray really liked all the old machines in the museum, like a kid in a candy store.
We popped up the road for a place to camp, there was really only one place so that will do I guess....it was fine till early morning.  Then I swear the van was going to tip over and it was hailing and howling.   The door almost ripped of it's hinges as we tried to get in and out and I was getting pushed around by the wind as I tried to carry dishes and things from the common area.  Ray had a heck of a time trying to fill the water tank, he looked a little nervous the van might fall on him.
We finally headed off towards Auckland again to drive through and find our way to Matamata, and if none of you are familiar with this town you will be by the next post......hehehhehe!

around the tip... of the north

We headed on to Waipu cove where we got a campsite after driving around aimlessly with no plan that day.  We were tired and worn out from the day and ready to get going fresh the next mornning up north further.  We had plans to see the Bay of Islands but somehow missed the turnoff and hit Kerikeri isnstead and saw the oldest rock house, a park, waterfall area and walk.  Some of these small town are so quaint and adorable.  Kerikeri seemed like a surf town sort of by some of the shops and some guy I overheard had been out earlier that day, I cannot imagine the wind and trying to surf in that.
After Kerikeri we headed off and before we knew it we were at the deciding point to drive to the very northern tip of NZ or head back on down the East coast of the Nothern reagion. We drove on down andopted to save the gas and driving for making our way back south. We saw 90 mile beach but there was no way to possibly consider an ATV in the weather.
We were getting close to where we had to take a ferry across at a straight and it would have been closed down for the night. We found a farm where they had a cute area setup for campervans, basic and just a place to park off the road for $10.  Our own cows as our wake up call, and watchdogs around the farm, very cute.

into da van

Moving into the van


Heading out of Auckland for the first time was a bit of an adventure in its own, thrown into a van where we I am siting on the wrong side and everyone drives on teh wrong side of teh road here. I have to take my shoes off to drive as the drivers seat is even to small for "A" and I can use all the room I can get, there were some cargo shifting bars behind the seat which I quickly removed as to be able to recline the seat farthur back. We made it to our first stop not to bad but there has been crazy weather here, rain hail and 100+ MPH winds. The van feels like it is going to blow off the raod sometimes while driving.
First night in the van was not to bad, the wind shook us up a bit and woke us a few times but we made it through the night, 2Km after leaving our first camp driving up a big hill... 2nd gear, 3rd, downshift to up the rpms, go to shift into 3rd... blew the shift.. no wait shifting linkage jamed.. WTF... unable to shift to any gear I was forced to fire up the hazard lights I backed down the hill riding the brakes the whole way down, flaged a car past and settled into the shoulder at the bottom of the hill.. on the wrong side but hey It was a wide shoulder.
We walked on down to a cafe/diveshop "Seafriends" where a really nice lady made the phonecall for us to our campervan company and explained where we were and how to get here. We sat around for 30-40 minutes waiting for teh return phonecall to tell us what the scoop was. Since it was a Sunday they said they will tow out a new van and we would halve to wait around till they could get out to us.
The nice couple at Seafriends offered up there car for us so we coulk Tiki Tour around the area.  We were quite taken aback by this hospitality and took them up on the offer.  To our surprise we found some amazing sites which we would have blewn by if the van had not gone kaput.  Things always happen for a reason we said and just enjoyed the day.  We went down to a marine reserve just down the road where they snorkel and  scuba dive out, which seemed a little cold for our liking.  What a view though!!!
After that we drove to Pakiri Beach which was a big open ocean view with white sand dunes.  Gorgeous again but very windy so made quick work of stop there.  We returned to Seafriends, waited a bit and the van replacement arrived.  We switched our gear and supplies to the new van and headed onward.
We headed on to Waipu cove where we got a campsite after driving around aimlessly with no plan that day.  We were tired and worn out from the day and ready to get going fresh the next mornning up north further.  We had plans to see the Bay of Islands but somehow missed the turnoff and hit Kerikeri isnstead and saw the oldest rock house, a park, waterfall area and walk.  Some of these small town are so quaint and adorable.  Kerikeri seemed like a surf town sort of by some of the shops and some guy I overheard had been out earlier that day, I cannot imagine the wind and trying to surf in that.
After Kerikeri we headed off and before we knew it we were at teh deciding point to drive to the very northern tip of NZ or head back on down the East coast of the Nothern reagion. We drove on down andopted to save the gas and driving for making our way back south. We were getting cloase to where we had to take a ferry across a straight and it would have been closed down for the night we found a farm where they had a cute area setup for campervans, basic and just a place to park off the road for $10.

Kiwi country

Kiwi country

Well after hanging out on Fiji time for 11 days we decided to change our tickets and head for our next stop. Fiji was nice and relaxing but very  hard to get around and nothing to do there if you dont golf, dive or sunbath. We had a wonderful stay at Beachside Resort in Nadi where we spent the majority of a time. A lovely Kiwi couple Philip and Jane who ran a really nice place, had a friendly staff and made it feel like home away from home.

We landed in Auckland around noon yesterday (Sept 15 over here). Had a quick bit to eat and jumped on a Airbus(airport shuttle). Heading into downtown Auckland we were really excited as the place is immaculate kept, clean, rubbish free, and well maintained. The outlying areas are quite quaint and we could easily see ourselves living in one of those types of neighborhood. We got to the busy downtown metropolis of Auckland to be overrun with crowds of people walking around, there are a lot of cool side streets with neat shops and you cant go 10 feet without passing a cafe.
After checking into our hotel for 3 nights (we are going to see if we can move up the pickup on our camper van) We headed out on the town to walk around and get a feel for the place. We walked around a few hours and returned to the hotel to figure out a plan for the evening and the next day. I't was late in the evening and most things were closed for the night so we wandered down to the cinema a few blocks down and decided to check out a movie. Imax was $2 dollars more and we figured what the heck. We watched Inception, with about 10 other people in the theater. Movies are about 6-8 months behind us and the "coming soon to a theater near you" movies are out on bluray back home. Movie over we wandered around a bit looking for a bite to eat. Not wanting fast food we decided "Turkish Delight" sounded delightful... Popped back upto the hotel, tiniest room on the planet by the way and the bathroom is straight out of a space shuttle, ate our felafel's. watched some tele and attempted to sleep... the city is retardedly loud at night, it is way more quite during the day.
Today we are updating the blog because we have some decent Internet and heading out on the linkbus, to check out more than the few blocks we walked around in.