New Zealand

On our way to Wellington we stoped the night at a farmstay. It was a 600 acre bit of land with rolling hills as a back drop - we could have been in derbyshire. After checking out the sheep shearing shed and a walk down to the 70 acre (!) lake, we cruised down the empty back roads visting the longest place name in the world and eventually made it to just north of Wellington. We stayed at a beautiful hostel overlooking the sea, caught the sunset and a glimpse over cook strait of the south island's northern tip.

Beat that Wales!

Baaa..

The next day we were greated in Wellington by John and Laura. They made us feel very welcome and in our new home away from home we enjoyed a long weekend of food, drink and laughter. Let the pictures speak for themselves...

Getting into the swing!

Maybe a few too many!?

Laura playing the flute

John and his love for women's fashion accessories!!

The beehive down-town.

We wondered back up to the north coast with the intention to getting over to White Island, NZ's most active volcano, but unfortunatley the weather was yet agan against us and no boats were venturing out to sea. We decided to hop, skip and jump through the mountains to Gisbourne before heading down the east coast admiring the black sandy beaches and the pounding waves of the Pacific ocean. We eventually arrived in Napier which had been devastated by an earthquake in the 1930s. The town was rebuit reflecting the era - Art Deco style. Despite not having the best weather it was still a great town to wander around and admire the architecture.

A climb up one of the hills in the town

We also wanted to try some paragliding, but again, winter is setting in and the warm drafts needed were simply not there. Still, we wanted a climb so headed to the spot where we would have done it (Te Mata) and admired the views across one of the main wine growing regions of NZ.

Te Mata

We stayed here for a couple of days in the hope of doing a sky dive - it wasn't to be this time round but we'll hopefully still get one in, weather permitting! So, in the drizzling rain we went off exploring. We visited Taupo's rapids and experienced the volcano centre which was a little dated. The highlight's had to be the prawn farm. We can now officially claim to have eaten at the worlds only Geothermically heated freshwater prawn farm. The prawns were delicious and we quickly forgot we were meant to be jumping out of a plane.

Yum yum yummy

We also took a drive and caught a glimpse of Mount Ruapehu but we'll be visiting this place again very soon...

Well be seeing this volcano again - hopefully a lot closer

After leaving Auckland we arrived late at night to the beautiful smell of eggs. This place is just full of thermal activity and was fascinating. We took in a cultural show, saw the Haka being performed plus we visited two places where we walked amongst bubbling mud pools, geysers and hot steaming pools exceeding temperatures of 100C! Even the ground we were walking on was warm/hot and for once Nic didn't have cold feet!

We couldn't see each other at some points as there was so much steam!

This goes off 10 times a day

We also relaxed in a Polynesian Spa, submerging ourselves in hot sulpher pools which were 42 degrees plus. Oohh and not forgetting the full body massage each - oooh! This travelling is sooo hard....

Relaxing!

Getting ready for the massage in a stupidly big dressing gown!

We arrived back in Auckland after conquering the Northland and were yet again greeted by a very arm welcome from David's Aunt and Uncle. We spent another couple of days checking out the sprawling city including swish Davenport and high tailing it over to Rangitoto - a beautiful volcano island! We were treated to a good ol' english pub lunch by Meredith and Andy, David's cousins and enjoyed the afternoon nap that followed..

A good start - no signs of a forthcoming eruption

The start of a long lava tunnel!