Sunday night we managed to have a quiet night in and an early night. We woke on Monday to find both ski fields closed, and having discovered there is literally nothing to do in the area when the weather's bad, went to visit Taihape, the world's gumboot capital, and had a good pose with the massive corrugated iron gumboot (after some excellent exploitation of McDonalds free internet once again). We picked up a kebab and headed back to the hostel lounge, planning t...

What a weekend! My birthday started off with cards from home and prezzies from Caroline - which I opened whilst still wrapped in my duvet in the campervan. Thanks very much for the cards and to Caroline for my awesome gifts - a ‘Sweet As’ New Zealand t-shirt, a Fat Freddy’s CD (iconic New Zealand jam band and inspiration for Freddy the camper’s artwork), and a keyring which I’m not quite sure how to describe politely, but the text went along the lines...

Well, I’ve got quite a lot to catch up on! We spent the weekend in Rotorua as planned - we were lucky in our guide, Grahame Hall - the father of the lady Caroline has been staying with, who’s a Nuffield Scholar and ex Mayor of Rotorua! Grahame and his wife Sandy had kindly organised for us to go and see a Maori cultural evening on the Saturday night. This was brilliant fun - we saw warriors paddling a waka (canoe), watched the haka and other Maori songs and...

Hey! Had a quiet couple of days, at the vets during the day and chilling at the campsite in the evening (quick pic of the view from the campsite entrance taken on the way out yesterday morning, still havent really seen my surroundings in daylight yet). Managed to intubate a dog rather slickly this morning - it's taken a few dodgy tries to get there, so pretty pleased (little things please little minds and all that)! Weathers taking a turn to the chilly but nice ...

Bit of a vague 'sunrise' picture (actually one taken at Awakeri) because I haven't really seen Thornton Beach in daylight yet! Its sun up at about 7.30 and dark at about 5.30 - and I was busy seeing practice today... Even having not seen the views, I'm loving this campsite - after a week living in a camper van, things like hot showers and wireless internet seem to make or break the day! Thornton Beach Holiday Park has been newly renovated, with a new amineties b...