Well we couldn't stay in one place forever so it was back to the road with Tina. We drove up to the town of Napier, which was virtually destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 so most of the town was rebuilt with the popular Art Deco style of the times. We had just arrived one day late for the yearly Art Deco festival where people dress up in old fashions and dozens of classic cars make their way to town to cruise around. It was still a sight to see the old buildings and have some lunch. Unfortunately, the ocean was still too cold to swim in. We did camp at an actual holiday park this time with facilities and some trampolines on which, in only two minutes, I managed to jam a finger and slice off a few square inches of skin from my knee due to my decrease in backflipability from my younger days.

We continued on to passing through expansive Lake Taupo where we rested on the sunny shores for awhile eating gelato and watching people jump out of planes. We saw the amazing force of Huka Falls, and then kept the drive going to a deserted river campsite a few miles down through a hilly farm and corn fields where we were the only souls except for the colorful sounds of New Zealand's many birds and a consistent bathing of rain throughout the night.

The rain did not damper our activities the next day as we were going underground. They call it "black water rafting" down here and for good reason. After getting fitted with wetsuits, socks, rubber boots, and hard hats, we jumped into the chilly water, turned our headlamps off, and floated through underwater streams in pitch black except for the intermittent smattering of blue glow worms hanging from the rock ceilings of the caves. Leah was not too terribly excited about being cold and wet in a cave for several hours especially when we had to jump backwards off a 10 ft waterfall, but ended up being a unique and fun experience topped off by their complimentary hot showers and soup afterwards.

Keeping it moving we cleaned up and headed for the warm water of the Bay of Islands about 200km from the northern most point of the country. We had one final goal to accomplish in New Zealand - swim with some dolphins. Well, the rain kept pouring all day, and the tour was cancelled due to the foul weather. Fail number three, but luckily we had one more shot the next morning before we had to make the three hour drive back to Auckland to drop off Tina.

The next day was beautiful weather, and we were able to locate a pod of 15 or so dolphins we followed for awhile, and then had the opportunity to jump in the ocean with. It was pretty amazing to have a dolphin swim a few feet below me under water however disorganized and inappropriate some of the tour guide's methods appeared to be compared to our knowledgable and more caring guides we almost went on the swim tour with in Picton. The ocean was finally warm enough to swim in and we had a scenic boat ride around the many islands of the bay.

We finished off New Zealand where we left off in the Mt. Eden area of Auckland. Overall we enjoyed the natural beauty and diversity of the land, the knowledge that you can escape every human being in about a 20 minute drive from any town, and the outstanding food and kindness of the people. New Zealand is definitely on the return list.