Some photos for the below entry.

And so . . . . . . . .

Since the last blog we've headed onto Lake Taupo, Rotorua, Waitomi Caves and the Bay of Islands. We particularly enjoyed the caving where we drifted through underwater caverns on a rubber ring looking at the glow worms.

Rotorua was a nice stop and the thermal pools were great. The public parks within the town actually have smoking pools of boiling mud and water.

The Bay of Islands were a nice finish to the travels as the weather was amazingly perfect. Extremely hot and hot enough for us to go snorkelling in the ice cold waters. Unfortunately the visibility wasn't great (a few meters at best) so we didn't see a lot, but it certainly spooked Nikki!

The final excursion was saved 'til last. It was to be one of the best one of the trip as we had been told by many people that swimming with the dolphins was the best thing they'd done. The day was great and we found a pod of over 50 dolphins playing around the boat, however there were several babies so we couldn't go in with them. So dissappointing. Maybe we'll do it in Australia (the water is so much warmer as well), and maybe we'll finally see those Manta Rays as well!!!

We are on our final few days of Auckland where we will be flying to Sydney. Our original itinery included a flight to Hong Kong via Sydney then on home, however we have amended the itinery to include another stop in sydney. We are planning to get some work and earn back some of the money spent. Wow, time to start working again. I just hope I haven't forgotten how to!

Where, where, where, where's Wally.....do you see him?

Hello to everyone. We have had an interesting week or so since the last blog. After I posted the previous entry we bought ourselves a Toyota Townace Campervan to travel the rest of our journey with. We bought it for $3300 which we were happy with. It drives really well and we thought we'd bought a bargain until it started to rain and.....drip.....drip......drip.
Anyway, thats all solved. A bit of sealant here and there et voila!

From Queentown we drove to Milford Sound and spent a night in some pretty field by a stream with mountains in the background and purple flowers everywhere. Nikki's choice obviously. We took a cruise around Milford Sound and were impressed.

We then spend the following day driving for 8 hours to Dunedin in pouring rain. It rained for the whole 8 hours. Thats when we found the leak. It wasn't a great day and I wasn't too happy. Of course Nikki didn't help as she just took photos of me trying to solve the crisis. From Dunedin we visited Mount Cook which is easily the most impressive sight in New Zealand for us.

Happy New Year!!

Happy new year to everyone. During the last week we climbed the Fox Glacier which was brilliant fun and then spent new year in Queenstown with Nikki's parents and some friends we met in Fiji. New Year here was great with live music in the street and fireworks above the lake. We managed to have our first drink of 2007 in an ice bar as shown in the photo above - everything from seats to the glasses were made of ice!

New years day was completed with a sky dive from 12,000ft which was amazing. The views were spectacular and I have a very amusing dvd to show you when I get back (Including me dribbling on my way down!). We have now separated from the parents and are back to slumming in the youth hostels again. We're hoping to buy a campervan to finish the rest of NZ and hope we don't buy a pile of junk!