Aeoteora (New Zealand to a'body else)

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12 days, 1 island (the north one), a banger of a station wagon and a tent. After an early morning in Sydney we got a stupid plane to Auckland run by Spaniards, who like to talk on the p.a. system thingy. Unfortunately by the time we arrived and changed our watches, again, it was getting late. Mum and Alan had booked a campervan and campsite so we still had to find a tent and pitch it in the dark.
We did make it but after 3 nights realised we were the same price, and comfier, to use on-site cabin/chalet type things. It rained. A lot. Fortunately we could sit in mum's warm van in the evenings and have them get brekkie ready in the mornings, except for those mornings we had to wake them up!
So over the 2 weeks we drove a lot, roads in New Zealand are very windy and hilly, it's like driving in Scotland on the country roads and there are a lot fo sheep. A lot. We only ever stopped in places for 1 night so we saw an awful lot. Some of the scenery was awesome, Cathedral Cove in particular, which was a tough 40 min each way to this little secluded beach and the volcano/mountain things with snow on top were very pretty.
Rotorua is an area where there is a lot of geothermal activity, ie. sulphur pools which smell like eggs, which you do get used to eventually. It's also an adventure activity type place so we had a go at luge-ing in the rain and went sky-swinging. Luge-ing was awesome. You sit in a skateboard type thing then basically throw yourself down a big hill and get the sky lift to the top where you do it again. Even Mum let out a few 'weeeeeeeees' going down the hill. Ross and I also went on a Sky swing which is very like a bungy rocket and something I'm glad I did, but not sure I'd do again! We got the DVD so you'll be able to see how terrified I was and hear the screaming...
Also in Rotorua we went to a Hangi evening, which is a traditional Mauri event with singing, dancing and some good eating.
But my favourite activity was in a place called Waitomo, which is famous for the amount of underground caves. I went for an afternoon 'caving' where I abseiled then explored the cave in the dark and saw cool glow worms, squeezed through wee holes in the rock then rock-climbed out, pure awesome.
So New Zealand was pretty cool, it was unfortunate we were there in the winter for such a short time but who knows, one day...........
And now onward to Asia, woohooooooo

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Photos

on the wagon
$5 for a horse ride round Devonport, delightful :D and the dude said his horses were used in the Narnia film to pull the witch!