Hello all,

It is definitely long time no speak. I apologise for not updating the blog in so long, but there really hasn't been anywhere to use the internet!!So i am making the most of my time now!!So we have been in New Zealand for 2weeks, we arrived in Auckland, and Di (a friend of the family) came to the airport to pick us up...but it took us ages to get through to arrivals, as we had to declare things, and made sure we did after the sniffer dog incident in Oz! They had to take my hiking boots and clean them-even though i havent used them since we'v been away, but i have used them in the UK and should have told them because of the foot and mouth scare!!i thought that was ages ago!!ANYWAY, that slightly annoyed me, then took out tent next and we had to wait about 20mins to get that back, but now we have a sparkly clean tent! Di says its because of the creepy crawlys in Oz they dont want any coming here..

So Di then drove us to her amazing house:) it is LUSH, have pics to show mum and dad when we'r back so u can c it,they deffo did a good job, so we had our own room and bathroom next door, and we made ourselves comfy. Didnt think we'd stay too long but ended up staying till friday morning(arrived on Monday)! In that time, we went into Auckland centre, and had a nosey around. Went up the sky tower to see amazing views of the city, went to a wierd art gallery by chance, ate lots of cookies, and caught the train, the only one i think we will take whilst we'r here. We arranged to hire a campervan-u'l see the pics soon,and when we got it i was so eccited-and i think greg was too!it was soo cool looking inside and planning where we'd put all of our things and how we'd cook in it.

Just a quick overview, it has 3seats in the front, then a grid behind us, called a cargo barrier, so if we stop nothing flies forward!and in the back,there are 2 sliding doors on either side, then there is a sofa and space on the floor, storage under the sofa, and shelves near the rear. The sofa slides out into a bed, which is surprisingly comfy-dont worry dad!! The you lift up the boot and the kitchen faces outwards, there is a gas stove thing that you connect to the bottle. A sink connected to a big water bottle and pots and pans and all sorts! so we have everything we need. We have learnt how to cook inside the van, is a bit tricky but it warms up the inside without using up our petrol to turn on the heater!!sneaky!! So once we had the van , we got given the best map Di has seen of New Zealnd for free, so we got her a copy too, and took some brochures with must do's etc, and drove home-well back to Di's!!

We siad we would go north from Auckland and roughly take 5-6days. Going up to the Cape Peninsular, very windy there, with the lighthouse and signpost of different countries-only Sydney and London remaining, due to direction pointing into the wind!we camped at a sight just below the top and only 2other campers were there. Walked on the beach and cooked out dinner for the first time, bit jiggly but was fine once we had it all sorted! next morning we missed the Bay of Islands as weather really wasnt very nice and have seen enough sunny beaches from thailand! So we went south and picked up a backpacker, he was called Matt and from North America, very pleasant, we went to visit this big Kauri tree-the largest in NZ, 14m around the trunk and very tall, gregs saying 200m but thats way too big surely!! we dropped matt at a campsite and he was hoping to make it back to Auckland in the next 2days-not that many other travellers passing by!!hopefully he did make it though!!

we carried on to the east side and stayed at a hostel which had a theme of cows-everything was cow orientated!!the next morning greg went in for a surf, in his shortie wetsuit, but survived, just got out when he was cold. I drove the van, was allowed to-and Greg could not sit still the whole time, didnt want me to drive,he was a horrible passenger!! so dont think i'l be driving much!! then we drove down the west side to a well known beach called Piha, and the surf was very messy. All along the sides of the road people had put out all of the junk that we would usually take to the tip, apparently it happens once a year and people come around to collect it all. But before it is collected a lot of people (mainly Maoris) go around and sift through it all, they have had to issue people with warrants to be allowed to go through it, otherwise it just gets chucked around and ends up in the street!!that eveving we drove back to Di and Grants house and stayed a night there, picked up our things. We left the following morning, said our goodbyes and thankyou's and made our way.

We have travelled a lot of the north island. We have seen lots of sheep and cows surprisingly! loads of green hills, which were volcanoes and also lots of the coastline. The weather has varied, but mostly ist has been nice, not too cold yet!We went to Lake Rotorua and used the hot pools in a hospital so payed $5 each-very cheap, I think i stayed in there too long, as after i was sick and felt disgusting, and very feint, but was just very dehydrated so need to be careful if we use any more.Walked around a park that had loads of bubbling hot pools, that would smoke because of the cold air, but the place was very smelly-greg liked it, i did but now associate the smell with being ill! Visited Lake Taupo, a huge lake, the size of Singapore. Stayed on the hillside, and saw the sunrise over the lake in the morning-was beautiful, althought very cold! We stayed with a friend we met in Australia, at her house in Napier, she told us to go to the local pool, which has hot pools in, but is half nateral mineral water and chlorinated, so not as hot as the 49degrees one at the hospital!!

We have seen lots of seals, went right down to the bottom of the north island, and they smell really bad!!but are very cool. Saw a small pool where all the baby seals were practising their swimming, and saw some pups suckling on their mummies!Then this morning we got the ferry from Wellington, a very nice city to Picton. The crossing took 3hours and was calm.So now on the South Island and we have just under 4wks to explore here. There is already snow on the mountains, so are hoping we can get a ski in...which would b so fun. In a place called Kaikoura now, where you can look at the sea and beyond are the snow topped mountains, so cool!Will be driving to some hot springs this evening by the time we'r finished with the internet!stay there, and then decide what and where to do next!Not sure if any major activities are on the agenda which is a shame, as would have loved to have gone skydiving, but money is rather tight, so also eating noodles every evening and cheese sandwiches for lunch!!But we did have a splurge the other night. Got told to stop at the seafood deli on the way in the north, and we picked up a kilo of fresh mussels-which were huge for $5.50, about 2.50pounds!!and i bought some white wine, onion and cream and cooked them the proper way!!!but nothing like yours dad!!but i must say they werent bad for being done in a camper!!

So thats about it i think:D Good luuck to everyone doing exams, sounds like theres a lot of those at the mo-dont envy you!!not sure when we'l get a chance to go on here again as there are less towns in the south than the north. So is important we leave a big cityh a full tank or we'l be paying high prices for the fuel in a tiny town when we run out!!same goes for supermarket shopping!

Love to everyone, missing you all lots

big hugs from us both xxxxxx