Keeping up with this hasn't exactly gone to plan...Craig is downloading an epic number of photos onto CD, so I thought I would try and remember everything we have done in New Zealand....

North Island

Our flight was horrible, and neither of our Televisions worked, so we couldnt watch any films..that made Craig VERY grumpy! We went through the extremely fussy customs procedure, and Craig had to have his boots cleaned before he was allowed in. The first thing we did when we got through the gates was have a Macdonalds Sausage and Egg McMuffin (My first MacDonalds in 6 years I think...I am a bit ashamed to have broken this run) I was breathing a sigh of relief not having to speak Spanish any more...until the person behind the counter couldnt understand my English accent at all!

We got a transfer shuttle to pick up our campervan, a "Spaceship" called Amidala...This is a bright orange people carrier, with a bed/cooker/Fridge/DVD player. They each have individual names, and when you see another spaceship on the road you have to beep it and wave... So far we have seen loads...There are "Spacestations" all around the North and South island, where you can swap your 2 dvds, and we have seen some really terrible films so far. The first hour or 2 was a bit scary, the car is alot bigger than Craig's little ford we left behind, and this is an automatic, so it took some getting used to, but it was so good being able to go wherever we wanted without having to take public transport.

Our plan was to go straight down to Taupo, via Rotarua, but it was such a beautiful day, and a sign came up ahead for the turn off to the Coramandel, which we had been told was a really lovely place, but if we were restricted by time we shouldnt go, as it was quite a drive. But at the last second we decided to turn off, which turned out to be a really good move. After a very long and windy drive on a gravel road, with the cliff dropping away right beside us, and no way to see round every corner, we arrived at an amazing campsite, right at the top of the Coramandel (Port Jackson) and right on the beach. we even went swimming at sunset, and craig forced me to play frisbee, which i was useless at. The downside was we had to have freezing cold showers in a hut with no roof, in the dark...yuk. The car is actually very comfortable to sleep in, but a bit of a pain to set the bed up etc...and washing up in the dark is not much fun either. (I'll stop moaning now!)

In the next couple of days, we visited Cathedral Cove, a beautiful beach with huge rock formations and cliffs and hot water beach, where at low tide you can dig a pool into the sand, which fills with really hot water heated underground and you can sit in your own hot pool until the tide comes and and fills it with cold water again! (We were too lazy to dig our own pool, so we stole someone's abandoned one just to paddle in!) Rotarua next, which is famous for it's geothermal activity, bubbling mud pools, geysers etc (The photos will describe it better than I can!) and then on to Taupo to meet Craig's family.

We stayed with Ana and Hadden, Craig's Aunt's Parents-in-Law(!) who have a lovely house right on Lake Taupo, with amazing views. They looked after us really well, and Ana wouldnt stop feeding us! We also met Fi, their daughter who took us everywhere around Taupo on a "Tiki-Tour", to Hawkes Bay in Napier, and even insisted on giving us a lift at 5am (despite us having a car!) for our Tongariro crossing trek. This was an 8hr trek, which started off fairly tame, nice and flat, taking you right past "Mount Doom" from Lord of the Rings. Next came the "Devil's Staircase" a pretty horrific vertical series of steps for 45mins..until you came out into the flat crater. There was an option to climb Mount Doom (actually called Mt Ngarahoe) but this was a 3hr return trip, and described as "extremely difficult" "only to be attempted if you found the devil's staircase easy" I definatly did not come under this catagory so we carried on. The second climb was without helpful steps and pretty slippery, up a mountainside. The leaflet we were given said not to attempt this section if the weather was windy, and said " you may feel it necessary to crawl on your hands and knees if the wind picks up" The views from the top were amazing (see photos!), with bright turquoise crater lakes, and bright red earth. This was the last of the climbing, and from then on it was all downhill, you pretty much had to run down the side as the ground was deep fine gravel. The moment I stopped, I fell over flat on my bottom, just as Craig had turned round to take a photo of me, so it was captured on film (great) Then instead of helping me up as I was pretty stuck, he carried on taking photos of the scenery whilst laughing his head off.nice. The downhill part of the trek was actually more difficult than up, it lasted about 3.5hrs, and our knees were pretty ruined by the end of it. To round off our day, Fi took us to the 37 degree hotpools, followed by Fish and Chips! So it was a pretty good day!

We left Taupo on the Saturday, having spent a week at Ana and Hadden's house. Before heading off we went to a lovely sculpture/art cafe for a coffee with Fi, and then off for a quick Aura reading (as you do) to solve the mystery of what I will do with the rest of my life (it's a VERY long story!!). We felt a little bit guilty about not using the campervan we were paying for, for a whole week, so we decided to camp for one night before staying with Sam (Craig's cousin) in wellington, followed by Anne (Craig's Aunt) in Masterton!! We stayed in a campsite right on a river, overshadowed by huge limestone cliffs. We made spaggetti Carbonara, and drank white wine from our tin mugs (how classy!). The next day we even managed to make bacon and egg sandwiches, and went swimming in the ice cold river (actually, I went swimming, Craig spent half and hour dipping his toes in gingerly...he wasnt very brave about the whole thing!) I ended up with very yellow/almost blue hands and feet for quite a while afterwards though, so I think he was actually the sensible one. We arrived in wellington in the afternoon, where Sam and Katherine had put up a wall especially, so we would have a room to stay in!!

We stayed for a few days in Wellington, which is an ideal city, right on the water, lots of boats and kayaking, nice restaurants and good nightlife. Not too big and not too small, so we really liked it there. 4 of Craig's cousins live here, all really close to each other; Sam, Zach, Toby and Matthew, with Melissa and Katherine (Toby and Sam's wife/wife to be). We spent the time exploring Wellington, eating in nice cafes, Te Papa the national museum, having dinners at home, going to the cinema where the Lords of the rings premieres were held, and had a few Guinesses on St Patricks day. We also got far too into a DVD series of Sam and Katharines called "Flight of the Conchords" which on one day stopped us leaving the house until about 3pm! While staying here we decided it would be a real shame if we missed Sam and katherines wedding (3weeks after we were due to fly to bangkok) so we have changed our flights so that we can stay...We will also be flying home from hong kong instead of Beijing, for time and money reason!!(The budget is not going wholly to plan!)

We heading over the Rumataka hills for Masterton (after finally dragging ourselves away from Flight of the Conchords) where we stayed for about 4 days with Anne and Andrew. Mahunga farm is where the wedding is going to be held, so there was a lot going on there already (bathroom installing/painting/path rebuilding/gardening) which we helped out with while we were there. We were also shown around Masterton, taken on some farm walks, went to a little farmers market, were cooked some amazing meals (we even had a crayfish), given lots of chocolate on easter day, and taken to a beautiful beach called castle point for the day. We will be coming back here a bit before the wedding to help with preparations, and set off on Easter Monday for the ferry to the South island

South Island

We picked a good, calm day for the ferry, which apparently can get very rough and about 3 and a half hours later we were on the south island in picton. We were pretty excited, as for the next 2 nights we were staying in a really beautiful apartment/b&b in Abel Tasman, in the very north of the island, which was a present from Jo. The apartment had 2 double rooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and lounge, sky tv and an amazing view through huge glass windows overlooking the sea. The first night we cooked ourselves pasta as we arrived quite late, but we even got to drink our wine from wine glasses!! The second day we went to the beach, and then bought the ingredients for homemade burgers, which we cooked on the BBQ outside the apartment. It was a really lovely little holiday!!

After our apartment luxury we were back to the orange car...which we booked into Old Macdonalds farm, where we stayed for the next 2 nights. We went to a tiny and completely deserted beach just 10minutes from the entrance to the National park, and went paddling, and then booked up the next 2 days, which made me tired just thinking about them! The first day, we got on a jet-boat style water taxi at 8.30am, which drops you off as far into the national park as you want to go, where you then walk back to the entrance, or get picked up halfway along the coast again. In an effort to save money, we only booked a one way taxi...and got dropped off a 8-9hr walk away from home....a little adventurous we discovered!! determined not to pay for a return taxi we did the whole thing. it was a beautiful walk, the Abel Tasman National park is known for golden beaches and turquoise sea, and it was worth it. We went swimming on a deserted beach to break up the walk. the main problem with beaches though is sandflies...tiny little things, with a pretty sharp bite, which itches horribly afterwards...we are now totally covered in them. The day after our long walk we had booked a days freedom kayaking, where you can go out on your own up the coast. there was a 2 hour introduction though, where you were assessed if you were competant, Craig and i did pretty well and the instructor let us go straight off, but she had taken an instant dislike to a Chilean couple, who couldnt really understand English so werent listeing to her, she totally embarrassed them several times, by shouting and making them repeat in english what she had just said to make sure they were listening. She only just let them go out. The kayaking was pretty tiring, but 5 hours on the water wasnt too long, and was enough time to get to a few beaches and have a look around. the weather was a bit crappy today, but it didnt ruin it at all.....We got back to the beach soaking wet, very tired and covered in sand, but it was a good day!

Anyway, I am running out of time, and probably boring everyone, so we will carry on with this next time... lots more to say!!!

bye bye

Emma and Craig xxxxxxxx