Next stop, Taupo. On route we stopped at a creek called kerosene creek which had a 5 minute walk to a hot spring river. We decided to have a dip and found it quite strange that our upper body was freezing as it was chucking it down, but our feet were toasty warm. You could see the water steaming down the river bank; pretty cool in the middle of a forest no one around paddling in a hot stream! We were a bit gutted with the weather being so rubbish it had been real...

....coming to paihia was a good decision- beautiful bay with little islands and fishing boats in the bay- hence the name the bay of islands!! got up early...ish and headed off to the very north of north island to see the joining of the two oceans at cape reinga. There are lots of really nice bays and villiages on the way up with tuquise waters and golden sands which are all spotlessly clean and hardly anyone in sight. That being said we stopped at one bay called ...

Hii guys sorry we havnt wrote sooner been a bit hectic. Arrived safe after 36 hours of flying and 42 hours wearing the same clothes...Little stressed with me loosing my ipod on the flight and having found it 8 hours later under the seat cushion in all the wires and electrics!! After arriving to the airport we got the shuttle to our first hostel only to realise we had got off 3 stops too early and had to walk up the biggest hill imaginable resulting in dean being ...