Pat and Don's Big Adventure

Hi everyone! Well it's been an amazing trip so far. I thought I would fill in a few spots of where we have been. I know Don wrote the last blog but he left a few things out so here goes. Arrived in Auckland and stayed at a beautiful B&B. had a nice visit with my cousin who took us kayaking. We then headed north up the coast-the roads are way too curvy for my liking but the scenary was beautiful!! Very rural in many places-don't know where everyone is when you pass through some of these towns. Landed in a place called Paihia-just stunning so we stayed few days. Took a fery over to a little island called Russell and hiked a HUGE hill to the flagstaff lookout. What a view but my knee wasn't happy climbing that-a nice glass of wine fixed that though. Next day continued north up to the bottom of 90 mile beach. Decided not to go any further north as I wasn't feeling too well from all the curvy roads. Stoppped in the Kauri forest and saw the biggest tree I'm sure we'll ever see in our lives. Headed south and spent some time again with my cousin in Auckland. Had a great visit with them and met their two boys. What a nice family. Stayed overnight and had a lovely dinner out with them. Time to say goodbye and head south.Torrential downpours coming out of Auckland!!Couldn't see a thing then all of a sudden glorious sunshine!!Everything changes so quickly down here-the landscape which is just beautiful and the weather goes from cloudy to HOT HOT HOT! love it! Stayed in Auranga then Mt. Manganui which was stunning-another hike up a mountain. You know what fixes that! Headed south inland to smelly Rotorua but a very interesting place so we stayed there a night. The geysers & hot bubbling mud pools were great. The people say the mud baths are great but you'll smell like sulphur for a month after-and that's showering every day!!. Took a great tour on an amphibian. First it was a bus then took us into the lake as a boat-how cool that was! Continued heading south to Palmerston North and stayed there a couple of days. Boy it doesn't matter what size the city is everything closes down by 6p.m. There is absolutely NO nightlife that we can find anyway! Some of the restauants remain open but they are usually quite quiet.So we usually have dinner and head back to our lodging and go for a walk then call it a night. Got down to Wellington-it's the furthest south point on the north island. Caught the ferry from there (3 hour ride) to the south island.Met up with a couple that stayed at the same B&B as us when we first arrived in Auckland. They were here to get married but had their car broken into the second day and her wedding dress, passsports & clothes were taken. The B&B operators helped them sort everything out so their wedding went off as planned. Wow, I know I would have been devistated. Drove from Picton(that's where the ferry arrives) and drove to Nelson another curvy road!!!And so here we are safe & sound. Don is doing an excellent job of driving. I won't be doing any driving until we get to Australia. I hear the roads are pretty straight & boring there. Well that's it for now. We tried to get in touch with Kath & Tim's friends today but didn't have any success. We were hoping they could give us a few tips on which way to travel so I guess we'll have to manage on our own. Hope all of you are well, feel free to e-mail us at our regular e-mail sights or add a comment here at our blog. Take care and please excuse any spelling erors....We will update as soon as we can...love Pat & Don