Back in Auckland

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Hope everyone has had chance to look at the pictures. I have more, but it takes a while to upload 5 megapixel pictures onto the web, so I could only put up seven. We got our ride back to Auckland yesterday. It was just Clint, me, and our drive, Otto. If anyone has ever seen the simpsons and knows who Otto the school bus driver is, this guy is him. We had a great time in the Bay of Islands. We camped out right on the beach for two days, but then Clint got sick so we had to go back to staying in a hostel. Tonight, we go to see the New Zealand All Blacks versus Fiji in rugby. We have pretty good seats, about midfield. Then, we wake up early tomorrow morning and catch our ride down to Rotorua. It's starting to get pretty cold here. The actual temperature isn't bad but when the clouds roll in and the wind blows it's pretty frigid. They say it's because the winds have changed and all the weather is coming in from Antarctica, and you can definately tell. We hope to stop in a place called Raglan, which is NZ's surf capital, and do some surfing. The next day we will be in Matamata which is where The Shire from Lord of the Rings was filmed. And, the day after that we will be in Tongairaro National Park which is where "Mount Doom" is. There is also a ski field there also which is an extinct volcano, and I will be skiing there hopefully. We have not met any Americans down here yet. Mostly people from the UK and Australia. It will probably be at least another week before I have new pictures up.

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