Kia Ora!

We can't believe that we have been in New Zealand for over 2 weeks already, the time is flying and as usual we have packed a lot in. We started off in a hostel in central Auckland for a few nights where we did all the sights such as the sky tower and catching the ferry over to Devonport. We also got our first taster of Maori culture at the Auckland museum including a cultural performance where they performed traditional songs and dances and demonstrated traditional weaponry. Then we picked up our (not quite so) little campervan, our home for the next 40 nights and headed off up the northland to visit the most northern point. En route we stopped at many pretty beaches and got accustomed to seeing beautiful scenery every corner you turn.

Everywhere you go in the northland you are always hearing about these huge ancient Kauri trees. After seeing the giant sequorias in the US we weren't overly excited about this but thought we should g and see what all the fuss was about anyway, and we were really glad we did. You walk through the forest surrounded by lots of big mature trees and suddenly come into a clearing and face to face with a Kauri that makes those surrounding it look like match sticks. Although not as tall as the sequorias, these tree trunks are HUGE with a diameter of over 5m. So suitably impressed we have both vowed not to be complacent as everything over here seems to be a must-see.

We took a bus tour along ninety mile beach to Cape Reina, whereyou can see the Tasman and Pacific seas meet. The beach itself is classed as a highway but you are not allowed to take rental vehicles up there as if you stop in the wrong place you can quickly start to sink into the sand and then your car gets destroyed as the tide comes in! Quite a few people have been caught out like this and on the trip you see a few car wrecks sticking up in the sand. The highlight of the tour for us was sand tobaggoning down the sand dunes. As long as you remember to keep your mouth shut on the way down (Alex forgot!) this is great fun the only downside is you have to climb up a steep sand dune first which is harder than it looks! We made it up there 3 times before collapsing back on the bus.

Next stop was Bay of Islands where we picked up an obligatory boat cruise around the islands and up to the famous hole in the rock. Wewere hoping to go swimming with dolphins too but the pod that they found had a baby (they thought just 2 or 3 weeks old) so we had to make do with watching from the boat. They came really close swimming right underneath us so it was still a great experience.

One thing everyone says you have to do is black water rafting in Waitomo, so although a little nervous (me not Alex) we had to give it a go. We got kitted up in a very attractive outfit consisting of a wetsuit and helmet (see pics) and then headed down into underground caves, in FREEZING water with just a little rubber ring to sit in! We had such a fun afternoon climbing down into caves, jumping off underground waterfalls and floating down streams with our lights out to see all the glowworms that look like starts on the roof of the caves. The guides were really good fun too, although slightly crazy as they showed off with crazy stunts (eg. somersaults in ring jumping off waterfalls).

We then followed the smell of sulphar to Rotorua with its plethora of geothermal areas. We visited Hell's Gate - lots of bubbling mud pools where we also got to have a mud bath and a soak in a sulphar pool (yes Alex too!). Obviously the area is very volcanic and so we visited 'the buried village' which as it name suggests is a village that was buried in a volcanic eruption in the 1880s which has now been excavated. The best geothermal site however was Wai-o-tapu and we recommend it to anyone heading out to NZ. At 10.15 the use a piece of soap to set of a geyser in the park which is quite amazing and the park itself has lots of different coloured pools of boiling water and mud, waterfalls and silica terraces.

One evening we escaped the smell of sulphar (although you can still taste it days later!) and headed out to a Maori village for a concert, bush walk and traditional hangi meal, which is cooked in the ground using hot rocks, and of course a bottle or two of yummy new zealand wine. The haka performed live by genuine maori tribe with their faces covered in tattoos is quite scary - neither of us would volunteer to fight them!

The highlight of our trip so far however, has to be the Tongario crossing that we did yesterday. It is a 19.4km hike across the ridges and craters of active volcanoes and is billed as challenging (our aching muscles today confirm this!). The hike takes you from about 1100m up to the 1886m at the highest point and although the climb is exhausting the view at the top makes it all worthwhile. You get amazing views of Mt Ngauruhoe , walk across the top of the red crater and alongside the emerald lakes (look at the photo album). We also got to experience how quickly the weather can change up there as we started off in freezing temparatures with poor visibility as we were climbing in the clouds and then they suddenly lifted and the sun was really hot, then next thing you know you are being blasted by freezing winds.