Hello all!

Here's another quick update from NZ!

We have now picked up the campervan and are on our month roadtrip through this beautiful country! Sorry we cannot upload any photos today as this computer has no visible base unit(?!?) but we'll upload some pics and vids as soon as we get a chance - and we've already collected LOADS and it's only been 2 days!

Lets start with the campervan. O.M.G! It is LUSH! Firstly it's a Merc, and a big one at that! We are having a LOT of fun driving this beast! I cannot believe it has a flatscreen TV, fridge, microwave, 2 double beds, utensils etc etc. Everything has an ingenious little compartment and so making the fact we thought we'd be living in VERY close quarters for a month - a breeze!

After staying at a beautiful hotel/appartment in Auckland called 'The Quadrant' (if you are ever in NZ i recommend it!) we picked up the campervan and headed north up to the Bay of Islands. Absolutely stunning scenery in 360 direction. We finally decided to spend our first night at a DOC (Dept of Conservation) campsite at Otamure and it was pure bliss. We camped RIGHT in front of the beach and literally had the place to ourselves. We spent the afternoon swimming in the sea and generally chilling, or pinching ourselves we were here!

The next morning we decided to head South to Waihi Beach, another fab place, and then onto Rotorua. That brings us to today. Rotorua is like the main Maori centre of NZ and has stacks of things to do. We started today by going to Te Puia Maori park, where we saw the most amazing Maori village inside a geyser park! We watched the main geyser spurt out water every 20 mins and sat on naturally boiling rocks and saw the bubbling mud pools. SO COOL! We even caught a glimpse of the Maori villagers doing a 'touristy' rendition of the Haka!

Afterwards we came back into town and went to a Polenysian Spa with lovely hot spa pools overlooking the Rotorua lake. We could see out to more natural hot pools and saw steam rising from the rocks! Well ace!!!

Tomorrow, we are probably going to head off to Wai-o-Tapu first to see some more mother nature awesomness in action before heading on to lake Taupo for a rest! NOT!!!

Hope everyone back home is well and the cold is not biting too much?! After getting a bit sunburnt today I am just looking outside now and noticing it is belting it down! Hope that is some consolation?!

Thanks again to everyone who is blogging! We are LOVING reading your messages - they are definitely making us smile :)

Will update pics and vids soon

LOADSA love everyone,

L + G xxx xxx