THE HONEYMOONERS

A $2 coin gets us 30min on the Internet at this library (most libraries are free) so this may be quick.

We had a smooth ride, obviously on Qantas, 'over the ditch' to New Zealand and arrived in Auckland losing 2 hours on the Date Line. We are now 16 hours ahead of you and the first to see each new day. We got on a 45min shuttle to the city and checked into a cool hostel called Base. Auckland is your typical 'city,' similar to Sydney, Melbourne, NYC, etc. What is not similar is when you head South (or North) and get out of Auckland, which we did the next day.

After a quick brekky at Base, a Kea rep picked up up and brought us to their offices where we went thru their orientation, poor as it was, on how our caravan (winnebago) operates. We're slowly getting the hang of it, but when you have a microwave that runs on the 240 volt, a water source for your sink and shower, and a different source for the toilet, the fridge working on either the battery OR the 240 volt, which you need to charge if you're not driving for more than 12 hours and a set of switches in a breaker box using to power the DVD player, lights, etc - you can see how it can be daunting at first. In fact, I couldn't even pull out of our parking spot when we first left the office b/c the stick shift was so foreign to me and I kept rolling backwards. We still stall every now and then, but we're getting better. Much respect to the truck driving world b/c driving a rig sure ain't easy.

Once we got on State Highway 1 headed south to Waitomo, it was smooth ridin with absolutely stunning scenery. If you like to drive, even the tiniest bit, I can't imagine they are better roads to drive than in New Zealand with the rolling hills, forestry and wildlife, cows and sheep a plenty, and mammoth plots of land in a farm setting that go on for acres and acres. Here's a stat - there are 4 million people in ALL of New Zealand and over 35 million sheep. For reference, there are over 4 million people JUST IN South Florida alone (Dade, Broward and Palm Beach).

We got to our camper site just in time and plugged in (hooked up our power cord to their power source) so that we could use the electricity in the van (lights, DVD, water pump). We went to Publix (ok, Pak N' Save) and got some food earlier in the day so we have a proper kitchen now. Made cheeseburgers the first night at the camp's facilities and watched a little There's Something About Mary on DVD before going to sleep. Although we have the ability to cook and shower, etc all in our vehicle, we typically use the camp's facilities as they are more spacious and b/c we're paying for it anyway.

So the next day we woke up and went to the Waitomo Caves, a famous tourist attraction with gi-normous caves underground hundreds of feet. Amanda lasted a whole 90 seconds before she turned around and left the tour (we got our money back though). After the caves, we headed on, again, an unbelievably picturesque drive East thru the North Island where we kept finding ourselves saying to one another "Wow," "Whoa, did you see that??," "LOOK" - it was that kinda driving.

After a quick stop at the Cadillac Cafe to have a lunch in a city called Putaruru, we contined on to Rotorua, where we are now and leaving tomorrow. Before checking in to our camper, we went to local video store and picked up Lord of The Rings, Part I - never had any interest in it really, but being that we are in New Zealand, it was something we both wanted to see. Last night we watched the first disc (90min). I don't have the attention to watch 3hrs straight, so tonight we'll probably watch the 2nd disc. As of now, seems like a lot of fuss and media attention as an 'epic' for a movie about a ring with powers.

Today, we checked out Hells Gate, which is about 100 acres of thermal activity. In fact, it is the largest active geothermal area in the world. There is steam and mud bubbles coming from the ground and awful sulfur smells everywhere, but it sure is a special experience. Better than the sites, though, is the mud bath that we took afterwards. Tonight is a Maori festival where we will be entertained and fed Maori traditions and food.

Will try and get pics out as soon as possible.