Hello everyone,

Thanks for all your messages. Sarah - we have just got ourselves sorted as far as the camper van is concerned and although it's a bit cosy we are really enjoying it. How you managed with four kids I don't know! Rachel - glad everything is going o.k.

Jessie - your dad does smile sometimes! Dont know the relevance of the colours but no doubt you will tell us when we get home.

Weather has been wonderful today and we have just come off a boat trip round the Bay of Islands. Unfortunately there was too large a swell to go through the hole in the rock but it was great, nevertheless. We didn't see any dolphins though!

Yesterday was a bit of a tortuous journey as we lost time picking up the van and didn't get on our way until about 3pm. Consequently it was 8 pm before we got to the Bay of Islands and then we had a job finding our site as it was tucked away up a long road, but it's nice nevertheless.

Early start tomorrow down to the Coromandel Peninsula so we will blog again within the next few days.