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Good afternoon all,
Thought it was about time to let you all know how we are!!!!
Well New Zealand as you would expect is beautiful and amazing with loads of brilliant sights, the people are really friendly and its really easy to navigate, we have only been moved on once from our chosen camp site and that because we were in a mountain bike trail centre car park in a Forestry Commission site and they were filming Yogi Bear just down the road so security moved us on!!!
So, we started our trip North of Aukland after staying with Petes Aunt who is great, we got the van dubbed 'Rat' or 'Marley' (depending of your Pete or Lizzie, i stay out of it, I have my Chili plant 'Frank'!!!) ready and headed North for the clear waters of the coast, we went snorkeling and saw some amazing fish including huge Rays, Red Snapper, Goat Fish, MauMau, different types of JElley Fish...Lizzie and Pete know more about the species than me...the water was warm and beautiful! We headed west and saw the Kauri trees 2000 years old and HUGE we even eavesdropped on a guided tour and heard a Mouri man singing to the tree and talking about the history!!!
Then we started heading further south of Aukland, we have been to the Coremandel and done some more Snorkeling, and seen generally beautiful landscape! We have just come from Rotorua where we camped by two lakes and a forest and went swimming in the water in the evening, walking, running and mountian biking in the woods! Mountain biking is awesome, bloody scary but well good fun, I end the day knackered, full of adrenaline and covered in new bruises and scratches!!! Had some pretty rediculous falls, one into a bog loosing balance on a boardwalk, and then another down a slope because I bottled it, both of which Pete saw and laughed (damn him!).....Its great fun though, cant wait to get my bike out here and get on the trails more regularly, feel pretty special to be learning to ride out here on some of the best trails around!!!!
We reached Taupo last night and are going on a big walk called the Tongariro Cirtcuit.....and Dad we get to see Mount Doom!!!! There is loads of thermal activity here, and so we have been exploring geysers and hot pools....they have thermal generated power down here too which is ace! We went to a Honey place today and demolished their free samples....Pete wasnt even subtle about putting ALL of the fudge on his cocktail stick and munching on it infront of the lady...Lizzie and I made use of all the free cosmetic honey samples!
Life in the van is ace, really chilled out, we park up every night, make tea and mostly just read or chat, or play a game we bought out here called Stone Wall...Pete is ruthless! It is a very different experience to South America, in that we are not staying in Hostels and therefore do not come across so many people....we shower much less often.....showered yestersay for the first time in a week....it was amazing!!!!! But on the flip side we also get some to see some places that are off the beaten track and stay in some pretty beautiful spots...we are also determined to see a Kiwi and spent most of the other night staring at a bush in the dark that was rustling....to later see a Rat!!!
Anyway, we hope you are all well and the weather is awrming up:) Speak soon
Kate, Pete and Lizzie
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