There is only one Lord of the Forest, and he does not share Paihia

Luckily we didn´t miss our ferry, and we rose and shone bright and early to climb aboard at 5.30am. Ych. It was pretty though:

After stocking up on books in Wellington´s Arty Bees bookshop we jumped back into Bill-the-Pony and headed north. We stopped at Waitomo glow worm caves, but we couldnt take any pictures of it. Check out it out here though.

Next on the agenda was seeing some enormous trees, so we stopped at the Kauri museum to find out about the brutes before we encountered them in the flesh/wood.

Matt´s second trip to the Kauri museum

Jen was terrorised by a plastic man asking if she wanted tea. HONESTLY!!!!

I think we are ready for the real thing now.

Tane Mahuta - Lord of the Forest

Phew that was a big tree! We found a pretty campsite next to Kai Iwi lake to rest up and reflect on it. 

We had just about time for a swift visit to the Bay of Islands before we had to head back to Auckland. We stopped for fish and chips along the way. Yum.

Chip stop! Gerrof my chips seagull

Paihia

After a lovely day at the beach we headed back to Auckland for what we thought was to be our final night in New Zealand. It was the last night of the Chinese new year celebrations, so we went to see the lantern display and fireworks in Albert Park.

We got up the next day ready to jump on a plane to Santiago, only to find out that the airport had been closed because of a huge earthquake! How inconsiderate. We found ourselves re-routed to Buenos Aires a week later. It was disappointing, but it meant we could catch up with our old pal Mark. You remember him, right? Here he is with Jenny being a statue:

The week sped by fairly swiftly with lots of visits to the park and swimming pool. We went to see a certain long-awaited movie at the Imax cinema, but we won´t say anything about that (betrayed sob). Then we had our 20 hour flight to Buenos Aires at 4.30am to look forward to...

I will take the ring to Auckland, though I do not know the way...

Kia Ora from Auckland!

We had a few days before we were to pick up our new home on wheels, so we took a bus to visit the local zoo!

Anyway, enough of this nonsense, lets get on the road! We would like you to meet Bill-the-Pony. Readers, this is Bill-the-Pony, our van (with his glamorous assistant):

Jenny cooking up a storm in our en-suite kitchenette

Bill-the-Pony, these are our blog readers! We named him after a pony in Lord of the Rings called Bill. It seemed appropriate as our first stop was a visit to Hobbiton!

Us under the Party Tree

And in Bilbo's window (where Gandalf pulls Sam through)

Above you can see the whole of the Shire and also where they are rebuilding the set for filming The Hobbit...

A sheep shearing demo from our friends at Hobbiton Farm.

A short 2 hour drive down the road brought us to Rotorua on the Thermal Explorer Highway. It had lots of hot springs and smelled of egg.

The park, Hell's Gate (pictured above) allowed us to do something i know you have all dreamed of...

...roll around in hot mud!

Then, after a night in a layby we took the gondola up to have a gander at the town.

And took the luge back down to the bottom. Three times.

Back on the road we go! We decided to take the scenic route through the mountains not realising it was 200k of unsealed road. It was worth it though.

After spending the night in the national park (far more picturesque than the lay-by, and quieter too) we drove via Napier (the art deco capital of New Zealand) to Wellington (the ACTUAL capital).

Chinese New Year celebrations outside the art gallery

After an eventful day visiting the national museum, eating dodgy wraps at a food market and obtaining a parking ticket, we had a quiet evening at home before the ferry journey to the South Island the following day! See you there...