New Zealand

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Hi all

Well before I start I would like to say thank you to all those of you who emailed in commenting on Robs lack of imagination when getting dressed in the morning and/or his hygiene standards. I had also noticed that in every pitcure he is wearing the same T-shirt and questioned him on this. He said thank you to everyone for their concern however he has been washing it regularly and it is just his favourite one!

Anyway, the weather in New Zeland is crap! It is the same as England possibly even worse and this is supposed to be the start of their summer. We have had a couple of good days but still not hot, just warm and sunny and for the last 3 days it has been chucking it down with rain and been pretty cold so not impressed! Anyway back to last Saturday and without knowing what the weather was going to do we picked up our hire car. As we are only here for 2 weeks and trying to budget a bit we thought (as recommended by the nice lady at the Tourist Information Centre) we would hire a "Micro Camper". This is basically an estate car where you open the boot at night and there is an awning which comes down over the back and you sleep in the back of the car. It comes with table, chairs, stove, utensils, bedding etc and along with our stuff this pretty much fills up the back of the car. So we set off and headed up to North Shore as Rob's friend Jim lives over here now and we were meeting him for the afternoon. He took us down to the beach where the film The Piano was made and he showed us a few other sights which I have forgotten the names of so we will move on. That evening we said bye to Jim and headed down the North Island to Hamilton which is a small town and we were just using it as a base for that night. We found a campsite and started to prepare the car for sleeping which was interesting as whilst everything fitted in when driving during the day we were not sure where everything was going to go at night when we needed all the space in the back. Luckily we found the funny side of this even though we new that we had 14 nights of this ahead of us and eventually managed to arrange everything and then sat down to a hearty meal of soup and bread as this was all we had the energy to make. One good thing about the weather not being that great (the only good thing) is that it was'nt too hot in the car like the camper. On Sunday we headed down to Rotorua which is a major touristy place on the North Island due to it's thermal activity. Everywhere you go there is steam coming out of the ground and bubbling water and hot springs, although on the down side there is a lovely smell of Sulphur (rotten eggs) in the air. The campsites here were fantastic as they all had outdoor spas with the water averaging 38-40 degress thanks to the geothermal activity. That afternoon we went on a chair lift up a mountain with great views over Rototua and it's massive lake and at the top we got to go Luging which is like sledging but with wheels. You sit in this cart and go down a mountain on a track as fast as you can (you have brakes) and it's childish but great fun. That night we spent at a beautiful sight where there were 3 pools all at different temperatures and we were their until late which warmed us up nicely for sleeping in the damn car. We went to a Thermal Activity Park on the Tuesday and you could walk amoungst all the bubbling mud pools and hot waters which was pretty impressive and in the afternoon we found another campsite more central where another evening was spent sitting in the spa! Tuesday morning we went to the Buried Village which was a village (obviously) which was destroyed by a volcano many years ago and you could see parts which were left of the village and hear the stories etc. I never realised how dangerous this country was, what with all the active volcanos and the earthquakes I am suprised people live here I am starting to get rather worried. It is very interesting though to find out all this information and the scenery as we drive around is spectacular it just looks like Lord of the Rings whereever you go. What with the threat of a volcano erupting or an earthquake happening we did'nt feel our lives where in danger enough so we decided to book to go White Water Rafting on a Grade 5 river which included a drop over a 21 metre waterfall! So that afternoon we were picked up and taken to the rafting place where they kitted us out in helmets, wetsuits, fleece (bloody cold weather), boots, life jackets and a paddle. Once we were ready we sat in the rafts on dry land whilst they gave us a brief training session which lasted all of 10 seconds and we were then on our way down to the water. Yes I was petrified, although being confident in water I have a natural fear of being pulled under by strong rapids and never coming up again although they were trying to assure me this was not the case. There were 3 of us "novices" in the raft and 2 guides and we started off on a leisurely raft down the river which was nice although I new it would'nt be the case for much longer. We soon arrived at our first waterfall which was only a 3 metre drop followed by a 1 metre drop - ONLY - not. However this was fine and made it down still attached to the boat although slightly wet. We then prepared ourselves for the big one and were shown the position we must take when we tip over the waterfall which was bascially sit on the floor of the raft and hang on for dear life, there being a 1 in 15 chance of it flipping over. Well you can see for yourselves by the photos how close we came to being that 1 in 15 but luckily we stayed the right way up although I never realised that the boat would actually submerge at the base of the waterfall for a few seconds which was quite scary. We then went down some rapids which seemed very easy compared to the waterfall and were soon back on dry land, it was fantastic and will probably do it again but not for the faint hearted. That night we headed back to the campsite to spend more time in the hot spa which was becoming a bit addictive but well deserved that day, we are also becoming rather good at this self catering lark and using the camp kitchens. The next day we headed to Taupo which is the skydiving capital of New Zealand although I have not done this yet as still thinking about it! We just stayed the one night their and then headed off towards Wellington. It took us most of the day to drive down as we stopped off on the way at Mt Doom (Lord of the Rings), I have forgotten it's proper name (left all the names of places in the car as you have probably noticed) and went for a walk around the mountains where they still had snow at the very top which was a bit wierd because although it's not hot it is definately not snowy weather. The weather started to turn very bad by the time we reached Wellington and it was chucking it down and blowing a gale so we checked into a campsite and they recommended we stayed in cabin rather than the car which we eagerly accepted. So on Friday we went into Wellington and not that impressed considering it is the capital. Not a great deal to do and the weather did'nt help although we did stay dry for the trip up on the cable car to see the views over Wellington and then the walk back down. That evening we were supposed to be getting the ferry over to the South Island but have decided to just stick with the North. The crossing takes 3-4 hours and with the weather Rob would of just been chucking up the whole time plus it would of been a rush to get round and back up as we spent longer than intended on the North Island already. So we left Wellington and have started heading back up the East Coast with a detor today (Saturday) to Eastbourne. Yes they have a Eastbourne here and not particularly similar to ours although we did get soaked through today getting photos so the weather is again similar. We have arrived in Napier this evening and it's the main wine area so hoping to go wine tasting tomorrow. Can not believe only a week until Mexico, very excited and looking forward to the hot weather again as hate the cold and my tan is fading. Still does not feel Chrismassy but I expect you have all started on the Xmas parties already.

Will right again soon. XXXX

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