Kia Ora (it means hi..... not the orange squash drink)
Well, we're here in NZ and we've experienced lots of rain and it's quite cold too! We arrived on Thursday 2nd October where we went from 36C in Fiji to like 17C and it was a shock to the system. We touched down in Auckland and we got to our hostel where we had a lovely double bed with ensuite and tv so we were happy. We ventured out and got ourselves some food - o.k. it was Burger King but it was late and that was all that was open! My excuse anyway.... hee hee.
Friday we had a big lie-in and then went out and looked around the city where we went up the skytower - apparently it's the tallest tower in the southern hemisphere! We walked around it and took in the sights of the city at something like 280 feet above ground. Also, on parts of the walkway around the tower you could walk over these blocks of thick glass and look straight down underneath you - a little scary but what the heck - they said it was safe so we believed them! After that we discovered that there really wasn't much to do in Auckland so we went to the cinema where we nearly watched Wall-E (Ria said for ages she wanted to see it) but then we kinda agreed that we really didn't want to see it so we swapped our tickets and saw Edge of Love instead (again Ria's choice but I've already said we're gonna watch James Bond!) so we saw that - it was o.k.
Saturday we had another lie-in (oopsy) and took a long, uphill walk to the museum where we spent a couple of hours looking around the exhibits such as Maori buildings, weapons, South Pacific weapons and old boats and also a natural world area where we saw lizards, starfish, crabs and even a 'little shag' hee hee. After that we dawdled back to the hostel and that evening we were waiting for our 'free' meal from the hostel but when we took a look at it we decided against it - apparently it was shepherds pie but it looked like mush! Instead we had their local speciality of..... Dominos Pizza! We then watched a silly movie, took a walk out to the skytower for some piccies and then came back and watched Risky Business.
Sunday we checked out of our hostel and made our way to the campervan hire place down the road, picked it up and brought it back to the hostel so we could grab some breakfast and our bags. We loaded up our little van (and boy is it little!) and I was just about to start the engine when I noticed this piece of paper on the windscreen - a frickin parking ticket for $40! Apparently we were parked the wrong way round on a street - what a stupid reason.... we laughed about it and thought 'screw it, we're not paying that.' We then made our way out of the city to Rotorua, via the town of Matamata where 'Hobbiton' is - the scenes of where the hobbits home are. We were gonna go on a tour but decided against it when we found out how much the tour was plus we weren't too bothered about it. But anyway, about 2 hours later we ended up in Rotorua at a nice little campsite with a tv, kitchen, showers/loos and laundry.
Monday we left Rotorua and saw a road sign for 'Buried Village' found that but decided against it as it was pouring with rain so we headed back into the town and had a delicious sarnie for lunch and bought tickets to the Rainbow Springs nature park which was just down the road. There we walked all around the park and saw kea (birds that only live in NZ), geckos, massive ugly rainbow trout, duckies and kiwi - and I don't mean the fruit! We had also booked ourselves onto a tour of 'Kiwi Encounter' where we saw kiwi eggs starting to hatch, little babies and was within a foot of an adult kiwi. They're strange little creatures but at the same time they were really cute and knowing that they're an endangered species made it even more amazing. We then left Rotorua for Taupo (the adventure capital of the North Island and found a nice campsite right next to the lake. And that evening I cooked a delicious spag bol with peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes - it was yummy!
Tuesday we woke up to rain so we left the campsite and headed into the town where we stopped at the information centre as I wanted to find out what the weather would be like for the next day and whether I'd have any chance of doing a skydive - in a nutshell no chance as there was a storm heading our way from the south. So then we left Taupo and headed straight for Wellington - the capital city. I drove the first half through fog, torrential rain and gusts, we stopped along the way for some lunch and then Ria said she wanted to drive 
so she drove for the rest of it. We saw lots of scenery ... nearby though coz the rest of it was covered by fog! We did make our way to a hostel where they provided parking for campervans so we parked up on a slope, paid for a night and then took a look round and made the excuse of me having a weak bladder so I wouldn't be able to walk that far and upstairs in the middle of the night for a wee (hey - I do have a weak bladder!) so we said we were gonna leave and got our money back! Phew! So from there we went about 5 minutes out of the city to a motel which provided motorhome pitches and camped there, where we have stayed since. It's a nice little site which has a tv, kitchen, showers/loos and laundry.
Yesterday (Wednesday) we had a lie-in (they seem to be happening quite frequently lately) and then headed into the city and took a cable-car up to the top where we had great views of the city as the weather has improved. We also walked around the shops looking for an extra layer of clothing as it's been so darn chilly here - Ria managed to find a top but I haven't as yet. We didn't do much else apart from a bit of food shopping so last night I cooked delicious fajitas (Ria prepares the food) so again I was quite proud of the meals considering we have limited utensils and facilities!
Today, we're not sure what we're doing - whether it'll be a trip to another museum, the parliament offices, the archives museum or something completely different! Tomorrow we're going to make our way to Weta Caves where it's free admission (a bonus) which shows some of the models used in Lord of the Rings and other stuff like Doctor Who. We did consider doing a LOTR tour but one they were expensive and two everything has been put back to pre-filming so there will only be trees and mud so we thought it pointless! Also tomorrow we get the ferry to the South Island where we start our next adventure and I bet it's gonna be even more frickin cold!
Oh, I forgot to mention about the pain I had to endure after our trek in the jungle in Fiji - remember that my trainers were like 7 quid - well they were expensive for my health in the end - I had awful sores on my right heel and my toes had been squashed in at the top. I took a picture as evidence so I'll put that on facebook! hee hee
Anyway, not much else to say. We're off to do whatever else there is to do in Wellington (which is not very much).....
