We haven't really done anything too exiting since my last post. We spent a night in Hamitlon, another in Raglan - at the same hostel as before. Then we spent 3 nights in New Plymouth. That's were Mount Taranaki is. Trev wanted to do a 2 day hike around the mountain, but the weather wasn't so good. We just did a one day hike half way up the mountain. The wind was so strong - I swear it almost blew me over a couple of times.

We saw the film "Big Fish" while in New Plymouth. I thought it was great, Trev didn't like it so much. Anyway, on our way out of the theatre, we bumped into Jake House, who was just walking down the street. It was so random and wierd. We got to talking and ended up giving him a ride back to Auckland, since we were headed that way.

Friday night, March 5, we saw a Super 12 Rugby game in Auckland. It was a good game. It was a close score all the way through. Trev and I decided to place a bet and cheer for opposite teams. He was cheering for the Waikato Chiefs, and I was cheering for the Auckland Blues. The Chiefs ended up scoring during refs time, making the final score 27-20.

We were off back down the Island again in the morning. We took a long drive down to Napier so we could slowly make our way back up the east coast over the next week. In Napier, we discovered holiday parks. They are trailor parks, but you can get a cabin or a trailer for much cheaper than a bed in a hostel. The only thing, is they don't have equipped kitchens, but we were able to borrow dishes and such from the park.

Anyway, we didn't do much in Napier. Napier is the art deco capital, and there was a lot of really neat architecture. We decided to check out a cricket match where a Napier team played a South African team. We stayed for about an hour and got bored - it's even slower than on tv. Napier is also known for its wine, so we did some wine tasting. It felt wierd driving up to these people's places and asking for free wine, but they were more than happy to serve us. We only went to two places, but we tried about 12-13 different wines in total. We were feeling really good after that.

After Napier, we stayed in Gisborne for 2 nights. Our first night we found this great lookout point and watched the sunset. It was so beautiful. Gisborne is the first city in the world to see the sun everyday, so we planned to get up early the next morning to watch the sunrise, but we slept through our alarms. We just spent the day walking through town and relaxing on the beach. Our tans are coming along quite nicely.

We actually got up early enough to catch the sunrise the next morning. It was very peaceful. We drove to this remote beach, and laid in our blankets on the sand watching the sun come out of the ocean. There was no one esle around, it was very romantic.

We left Gisborne in the early afternoon, after picking up Trev's shorts. I don't know if I mentioned before that Trev sat is some tar. Well, we took the shorts to the drycleaners, and they got it all out. The shorsts are like new. We were so impressed.

So, anyway, we drove around the east coast to Opotiki where we stayed for 3 nights. We stayed at another holiday park, but this time in an actual trailer. It was lots of fun. The holiday park even had a pool, which we took advantage of. We spent most of our time relaxing around the pool working on our tans.

We still hadn't gone horseback riding. It was one thing that I reallly wanted to do. So, on Sat., our last day in NZ we went horeback riding. We took a 2 hour tour through farm fields and forests and through a river. The river was the best part, at one point we went through this little lagoon - it was beautiful.

We then drove as close to the airport as we could, without having to stay in Auckland. We stayed at a really dodgy holiday park, good thing for only one night. We had planned to go for dinner for our last night, but we were too late. All the restaurants close at 9, so we had to settle for some pizza and garlic bread. It was actually really good pizza.

In the morning we got up, got packed, returned the rental car and were off to the airport. Our flight was only 3.5 hrs. The movie was "Somethings Gotta Give" with Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson, I really liked it. We did some more wine tasting on the plane, we were both feeling really good by the time it landed. The rest of the night is a little foggy.

We got in touch with Trev's brothers friend who directed us to where he would pick us up. We only got slightly lost making our way through the train station. Glen picked us up and took us to the harbour to see the city and the opera house at sunset. Then we went out for $5 steak dinner - that was a bargain. And then to bed. Australia is only 2 hours behind NZ, but it makes a big difference.

We didn't do much our first day in OZ. We walked around Glen's place getting oriented. We found a nice little beach and realized we were in one of the richest areas. The houses were gorgeous. Glen took us for a drive later too, to see other enormous houses. It's just incredible the amount of money around here.

We still don't know our plans for OZ yet. By our original time table, we have 4 months to travel and work. We don't know where we want to work, or how to best get around - by bus or by car. And there are all these strang rules for banking and working, which we need to get sorted out as well.

Well, wish us luck in this new chapter of our adventure. We will keep you posted. Please keep us updated on what is going on with you as well. It's nice to have that bit of contact with home.