Hello again to you all, a few weeks since we updated so we have a lot to tell you all...but before we go into what we have been up to just a few things we have to say..... Huge Congratulations to MC and Jim on the birth of beautiful baby Beth weighing in at 7lb 15oz, she is a wee smasher! We also have to congratulate both sets of grandparents and of course, ourselves!!!!! All our love to both Olivia and Matt who tie the knot this coming Friday, we hope your big day is all you dreamed of and of course have a few drinks on us to celebrate!!! Well onto ourselves now, brace yourselves as there is a lot to get through.... We arrived in Auckland over 2 weeks ago now and of course we happily got into city life and managed to earn ourselves a few serious hangovers!!!! To get to know a bit about New Zealand and Auckland we went on a Stray Bus Tour (I know you are thinking thats a bit naff but it was great)...we found out all the great places to go (and by that we mean eat and drink)....found out a lot about the Maori Culture and the divide between the Maori and the Islanders but we wont go into that at the mo...headed to Mount Eden which is Maori sacred ground and also an extinct volcano, the views were tremendous! After the tour the dreaded moment had arrived, the jump from The Skytower, 630ft base wire jump from the tallest building in the southern hemisphere....what a totally awesome experience...legs were like jelly at the top but it was worth it!!! Met my cousin Neil here for the 1st time in 15 years, went to a Japanese Rest. for a meal and a few drinks (well a lot of drinks really), we had a great night and promised to meet up again once we picked up the Venga Bus! Picked up the Venga Bus now titled The Mystery Machine on the Saturday....the most ickle, tiny, teeny camper you have ever seen........we are totally used to it now but in the beginning we were sooooo jealous of other people and their big campers....but as they say, size isnt everything!!!! Met Neil again in Orewa that weekend and got to meet his 14 month old boy Brayden, who is a wee smasher and as you will see is definately not camera shy!!!! And of course had another heavy night on the booze....need to stay off the booze for a while!!! Headed up to the Bay of Island and stayed in Paihia for 3 nights and as you will see the campsites are not too bad...the views are mega!!! Went on a trip up to 90 Mile Beach with the bus driving all the way up the beach then onto a small stream next to some huge sandunes where we grabbed our boogie boards and threw ourselves down the dunes at warp speed....excellent!!! Continued the tour to Cape Reinga which is the most Northerly point in the world and it was on this journey that we got the amazing news that we were uncle and auntie to Beth....great story to tell her later in life!!! That evening we wet the babies head with Frances and Thommo in campsite style, that is the 4 of us packed ourselves into their camper and had a few bevvies (again!). If you are looking at the site the 2 of you, hope you have a safe journey to Oz and we will deffo meet up with you in Sydney when we get there! Decided to go on a speedboat trip called the Excitor..........wooooooooooo....sounded great but we picked the wrong day to do it (when the sea was calm) and it was more like the Exsh@tor than the Excitor!!! Took us to some cool places though like the hole in the rock. Headed on down to Rotorua for the dreaded White Water Rafting (only dreaded for Maz) but the fear was overcome and off down the rapids we went.........went over a few smallish waterfalls which wasnt bad.....then for the biggy, 7m waterfall in a dinghy.....we must have been totally crazy, or was that the guides??? Awesome experience...the pics for this were great so there are quite a few on the website! Visited the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland which is created as the underground streams mix with the volcanic heat, this creates loads of cool water formations, steam, mud pools and colours..........oh and a really really bad smell, they say its sulphur but it smells more like rotten eggs, if you have a quesy tummy i would miss that one out!!!! As you all know we are big kids and couldnt resist the Luge which is roughly based on the ice version but on land and on a buggy with wheels...what a speed you can get yourself up to..........and you can do some spectacular crashes too as we found out!!! Off to Waitomo then for our Abseil and Caving adventure...4 hour journey into whats called The Lost World where you complete a 100m abseil into a dark cave....make your way through the caves by foot (which is really hard work) and into the deepest darkest part of the cave, then you turn off your helmet lights and the whole ceiling of the cave glows...with glow worms...amazing sight but you really dont want to know what makes them glow, but we will tell you anyway...wait for it, its their poo!!!! If all that wasnt enough we then had to complete a 30m ladder climb into the next cavern and then another trek through the caves to the outside world again...amazing experience!!!!!! Taupo was our next destination for Greg's skydive (amanda had already done it in Scotland and of course as we are backpacking we were trying to save some wonga), we had to wait a couple of days as the weather was bad but then came the perfect day.......we got there..... Greg signed in........and then they weighed him........7kg's over the weight they would accept him to jump....totally gutted!!!!! Now in training so we can complete the task in Queenstown (along with some other activities we will let you know about at a later date)!!! Off to Wellington to get the ferry to the South Island and the journey was spectacular to say the least, we climbed through green lush mountains into snow covered mountain peaks then back into green valleys with of course the natives littering the fields (by natives we mean the sheep!!!). The scenery is very much like the North of Scotland where we too have a lot of sheep!!! Now in the South Island and we will update you again before we head off to Oz in 2 weeks.....hope you enjoyed this installment..we have had an awesome time in the North Island and there is so much more to come!!! As ever love and miss you all loadz. Luv Maz and Flem xxxxxx