Auckland

Sorry for the delay, its not as easy finding cheap internet here:).....

Well after our fab 2 months in South America it was time to leave for New Zealand which we were really looking forward to. After a 13hr flight which i might add after being spoiled in the luxury buses that we travelled around south America in with there lie down beds the plane felt so tiny and definitely didn't have enough leg room, even for ma wee legs,lol

so off the plane we.. well Garry wanted a new camera from duty free, one of these big fancy ones that take better pictures. so after some 45mins picking the one we wanted we go to the bag collection to find that everyone else was gone and our bags had been taken off the conveyor belt... well mines had been and garrys was nowhere to b seen. not a good start!!!!
So after filling out all the forms we headed off to the hostel sure that we were not going to see the backpack again, so Garry now only has 1 outfit, hee!!.... its funny now.
So to the shops we go picking up a few tshirts n stuff but with luck the backpack was returned the next day so yous can imagine how Happy we were:).... and Garry was a few new pieces of clothes better off.

We were staying in the hostel for the first week then for the other 7 weeks we have hired a camper van to tour the rest of the islands.

There is soooo much to see and do and 1st on the agenda was rollerblading(my choice of course) along Tamiki Drive and what an amazing time we had... firstly we get kitted out with our blades that we hired for the 2 hours. It was Garry's 1st time on blades so the woman suggested he does a practice run out in the car park.... and i was very proud of him...., he didn't fall once,lol, but not confident enough to be on them for the 2 hours without braking anything he decided to swap for a bike, hee!!
so off we went, me in blabes and Garry on his bike that had no gears and with his helmet on strolling along the beach front, the sun beating down on us feeling like we were in a film(well that's how i felt anyway,lol)

The rest of the week we just relaxed, went to the pub and had a day out on one of the other islands and planned what we were wanting to do whilst we travelled in our camper van.

Getting the camper van was exciting and after getting all the information on how to work and drive the thing we were off......

1st stop was Coromandel which is where the Hot Water Beach is. It is a beach(obviously) that has volcanic rock 60m below the sand which heats the water that lies below up to 60 degrees and what u do is hire a spade and go digging until the hot water comes through and u make your own personal pool, we had to dig in a few different areas to get the right temperature, some were too cold, others far far too hot but eventually we found the perfect spot and in we went.... it was really busy, everyone searching for the right spot to dig and the steam that came from the water was unbelievable.

We have now travelled down to Rotorua which is famous for its thermal activity and spas... so we had to try one out, a mud bath then a thermal bath would do us just nicely... and how relaxing it was. After that we took a walk through Hells Gate... volcanic rocks and bubbling mud pools, all very nice and interesting apart from the fact that the steam from the volcanic pools smells like sulphur.... and sulphur smells like rotten eggs, yuk!!!

In the camper van we have a fridge, wee freezer, cooker, sink, microwave and all cooking utensils so we have been stopping at nice spots along our traveling to have lunch and are saving money by eating in instead of having to eat out all the time.... and we have a "treat drawer" full of goodies, yummy:)......... tonight we are having fajitas, mmmmmmm!!!!!