howdy folks

well, where to start, today we had the most amazing day - we turned up at this random beach in the middle of nowhere and went for a swim with a dolphin!
apparently his name is moko and we had a ball he loved playing with, we were playing catch with him for ages (just ben and i - noone else around) and he was loving it! he kept nudging us and hiding, amazing! check out the photos.

since the last update we spent a few days in ben's old home whangamata (ben had an awesome surf - see photo evidence), and have worked our way down to gisbourne via a gold mine (saw an explosion going off - incredible) and a climb up mount maunganui.

watched a surf life-saving championship in gisbourne which was carnage - bodies, oars and boats upsidedown and everywhere in 6ft waves.
it was also our 3-year anniversary so we treated ourselves to a lovely hotel room and a degustation - amazing meal with lots of course matched with wine. the following morning we went to see the vinyeard of the wine we had.

in hawkes bay now, and are working our way down the coast and then up to taupo.

bye for now
em and ben xxx