Hello!

Thought it was time to update the blog now we've pretty much done the North Island. Been living in the van (its called Serenity, I was not happy with that) for about three weeks now. It's going pretty well, a little snug and starting to get a little cold in the nights now though. We've still got hotwater bottles to bust out when we get to the South Island though so should be fine.

We went north from Auckland when we collected it up to the Northland area. It's pretty, but there's really not much there! Stayed on a beach one night though so that was cool. Then we headed down to Raglan on the west coast. Its meant to be one of the best surfing beaches in the world, but it was raining biblically when we were there so we hid in the van! Then we went up to a place called Port Waikato and walked along the sand dunes to the mouth of the Waikato river. That was awesome, and we saw the brightest double rainbow ever. Dont think our pictures did it justice some how. Cut back north then to go stay with Katis friend Marie and her boyfirend. They live in Hahei in the Coromandel. They were great tour guides and took us to loads of cool places (we went to ten beaches in three days!) and the weather was beaut too. Did some snorkling, swimming and walking, all very wholesome stuff. The Coromandel is stunning, easily the best place we've been in NZ so far and it was a shame to leave.

We left Marie and Craig's and headed south for Rotoura. Its a preety nice little town, but its best known for the thermal activity in the region and the large Maori culture. Basically it stinks of eggs all the time because of the sulphur from the hot springs! We went to a village that was buried by a volcanic eruption in 1886, it was pretty interesting. The eruption covered a huge area. Also went to a thermal park type place. There were mud pools, hot springs, volcanic terraces etc. It was a really interesting place and a cool walk through the bush, but it REALLY stank there! We got to see a geizer erupt too. After Rotoura we headed to Taupo, NZ biggest lake. I was hoping to skydive, but the weather was rubbish so I'll have to wait. We had a wonder round town and went to Huka falls which were pretty spectacular. We're thinking of going back to Taupo on the way back up to see it in the sunshine, the lake is surrounded by volcanoes that we couldn't even see when we were there!

Then we headed south down the desert road (not actually through a desert, just looks a bit like one!) towards Wellington. We went past mount Ruapeau and then took a wee detour to Wanganui to see the house I used to live in when I was little. It was quite nice, but I couldv'e been looking at anyones house for all I remember of it!

Today is our first full day in Wellington. We got here last night and then got geographically challenged round town for a bit and we didn't even fall out about it. We bought our tickets for the ferry to the south island today (we sail on Sunday) and also more importantly we got our tickets for the Hurricanes vs Brumbies Super 14 game on Saturday night. We're both looking forward to that, Kati for different reasons than me I think.

Off for a bit of sightseeing for a couple of days now, Wellington seems pretty cool. We've had to knock a month off the NZ leg of the trip to make sure we don't run out of cash. Bit of a shame but it'll mean we can still afford to do things rather than just look at them so its for the best. WE're both happy about it and looking forward to doing a tandem bungee in Queenstown, I'm planning on emotional blackmail to get Kati to do it! We'll be home at the end of June now, hopefully with better tans than you guys!

Love, Mathew and Kati