back with wifi!!

---

well its been a while soem miles have been travelled. went to Sydney eventually, my ticket booking wasa bit awry as we landed in gold coast and teh next hop was to from Brisbane. How was i to know its not the same place? it looked close on the map so with an hour to the flight and and anhour plus drive to get to Brisbane another $280 dollars required to get a plane from gold coast ( idiot)
still we got to sydney roughly about the time we intended and navigated the railway system to meet up with Stuie who was on his sixth pint by this time!!
It was melbourne cup day and Australia shuts for this preseigious horse race (apart from the bars)
Every office closes and everyone dress as if they had attended ( ascot type dresses and hats) everyone hits the bars and basically drink themselves into the gutter. obviously we had to join in and I even won $50 dollars in the pub sweepstake!!!!!!!
which was handy as that covered about three beers!!!!!!! f**k me is it expensive, ciggies at $17 dollars a pack 1.4 dollars to the pound.
so we had a day walking round the opera house, botanic gardens and crossed the sydney harbour bridge on foot and that folks is Sydney! sorry to all you aussies out there but after that and a day trip to Bondi beach in the rain ( it pissed down everyday!!) Sydney has nothing to offer unless you are pretty wealthy.
Stuie went to his wedding which was good and we stooged around in the rain a bit bored, gav and i even resorted to scrabble one afternoon evening.
admittedley on saturday andy wasnt feeling to good so Gav and i went to kings cross. now that was good even if teh beer is pricey.
after about 10 pints of guiness we went to a coupel of clubs, got refuse entry because we were either to untidy, to old or judged to be to drunk so teh strip clubs were teh only place to get a late drink, shame.
tacky though and crazy prices fro lap dances and extras, so being penniless tight pomms we swerved the action and found a couple of bars willing to take our dollars. 5 am came and went as the vodka redbulls were working wonders.
they wouldnt serve us doubles so we had to keep buying 4 at a time? crazy people.
all in all great night and it didnt rain until we got home.
Stuie got an offer from his buddies at the wedding to go up the coast so we took the opportunity to change our flights and headed to NZ a week earlier.
arrived in Aukland on the 9th Nov, picked up teh camper van on teh 11th, dont tell andy but fred and i went out on teh 10th and got slaughtered again at a dodgy dance club and staggered back home at 4.30 having to get picked up at 8 am to collect teh camper!! definitely was a fun drive that day for me!!
still the camper is cushty 4 berth ( midgets) so Andy is in the roof compartment and Fed and I are sharing the "double bed" in the back COZY!!
it does have all mod cons though, shower, toilet, microwave, toaster. 2 ring gas stove and grill, lights etc etc etc
We did a big drive on the first day to Russell at the bay of Islands which was very picturesque, paid 71 dollars to stay on a powered site, which we vowed would be our last at that price.
next night we went to a department of conservation site right at teh end of this huge spit of land.
it was fantastic. it had loos and cold showers and a water tap and no one else.
it was on a beach 1km long easily of golden sand in a near perfect horseshoe shaped bay with a few rocky bits here and there on the edges, paddling began immediately and then swimming although that wasnt planned as we were still clothed , just the waves suddenly came in a bit quicker than expected. eventually after a meal of mussels in white wine and cream. it was bed time. i happened to look out t e window to see the darkest night, the clearest sky and more stars that i have ever seen in my life. so it was back on with the clothes and fleece and outside to gaze stupidly upwards.
eventually at around 3.30am i succumbed to the need for sleep, it was too much hassle to try and drag the bedding outside.
driving south again towards orewa we were able to again park by the sea for the night, this time at the end of a road that just led to the sea and stopped, brilliant, there was even a mcdonalds round the corner that satisfied the morning mcpiss and mcshit needs!! after that we headed to Rotorura which is where we are now. last night was at a crap DOC site with no water and it rained again so we moved to a powered site first thing this morning which is cheap but has all the ameneities required including this internet connection.
Rotorura is renowned for its geothermal activity and hot springs, boiling mud pools and 30metre high geysers, which we walked around this afternoon.
this morning though was spent doing all our washing emptying the grey water and filling the fresh water and recharging the van.
however this was finished off by a couple of hours in the camps own geothermal springs and pools, bobbing around in the volcaic pools with water at 40oc full of minerals, brilliant and thoroughly deserved.
tomorrow we are off to Napier via lake taupo and some waterfalls, dams and possibly jet boats whoop[whoop.
then its napier to wellington and over to south island by ferry on the afternoon of the 17th.
its difficult to relay the beauty of teh country and i have not done it justice at all, teh journey down to aukland area nd rotorura today involves rolling hills like teh borders of scotland to sudden steep switchback climbs into rainforest then down teh otherside using engine breaks and low gears to pastures full p fcattle. then when you look out th eside window a whole flock of parrots flying along the road in colours that only a primary school kid would imagine in their colouring book, just fantastic.
right the machine wants more money and i dont have it so will keep you posted soon.
its a real adventure and we are living the dream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

---