Hi everyone!Hi Dod, somthing wrong with my e-mail so could you send this yo everyone on my mailing list? cheers

Been agesd i know, but i have been so busy! The last mail was from OZ i think. Well, sydney was great fun, and i shoppped gfor some winter clothes and we had a nice walk round the town seeing all the sights. It is very clean and unpolluted compared to london!!! Unfortunatelly the weather was cloudy and rainy so not great, but a good time was had by all on the whole!

We went to Bondai beach on one day, all exited about it from what we had heared, and were surprised to find a small insignificant strip of sand whan we got there! Not impressive at all, and the town was a dump to say the least. The one redeaming feature was a walk round the cliffs, and we did a bit of rock climbing which was fun!

The flight to auckland was fine, and we landed in NZ all exitment and anticipation of the second big chunk of our trip! A small and not very pituresque town greeted us as we got out of the airport bus. The urge to haggle for the price of this was great but we managed to hold ourselves back!

Haveing been warned off ACB’s by julio (the biggest backpackers in NZ i think) we headed for the lesser know Kiwi hostel. WE soon found out why it was not weel know as it was a dump. The room smellt foul, the beds were dank and rancid, the bathrooms were outside a locked door so unless you could remember the code by heart, or else nip in after someone else, you got left outside in a dripping towel after your drippy shower which i did! It also appeared to be inhabited souly by memberd of the older generation who had dropped of the road of life and had settled themselves into the hostel for the duration – almost part of the manky furniture one would say. An altogether unsatisfactory place for the 20 dollars we had to hand over each. WE made ofr the haven of ACB’s the day after and all was well!!! The room are clean, the staff friendly, the kitchens and bathrooms fine, and altogether made auckland barable.

The great car hunt started the day after arrival – we worried about what to do with Rich, but were soon relieved as he found his was into a gaming place and plugged himself intoa battle game happily! Geoff and i went round the hostels [picking up adverts and contacts for cars and vans. Thenre were loads and things were looking rosy!

Two days later we were shadows of our former selves. ASll the lfe had been drained out of us. We had managed to see three out of the the many cars we wanted to view due to everyone putting down a mobile number and then either switching their phone of, leaving the money swallowing answer maching on or else just diconnecting it in an attempt to thwart the happy car buyer! Stressfull was putting it lightly! In the end after andless trudging round the foul city and getting no joy we went back to one of the first cars we saw – names grey turd as it was so ugly and bough that. We really wanted a van b ut the luck was not in our favour and we just wanted to get going.It actually turned out to be a great buy – touch wood. Economical, easy to drive, heater works and all in all it’s fine. Rich slepped in it until he left yesterday and it was fine. We testeed it out for the first time last night and parked it by a beach. We went to sleep and woke up to the sound of the waves, and all in all it was most pleasent.

We have spent the last week and a bit goping round north island seeing as many lord of the rings things as we could and doing many of the sports. our firsat stop was hobbiton which we were all exited about. However, our exitment turned to farmer cursing as we found that the owner of the field was charging $50 to get in and have a look!!! My favourit was the elven woods which looked just like the film. It had to be said though that on the whole the sights wre not impressive and there was no effort made to make them any better.

Activities inclueded flying a plane (geoff flew!!!), caving and blackwater rafting which involved absailing down into a cave, wading through the freezing water in boots and wetsuit, looking at the glow worms which were great, and then after a spot of pot holing, rock climbing back up!!! Great fun!. Geoff and Rich did a bunjy – i was needed on theside to do the photos, and we all did zorbing. For those of you not aquainted with the zorb, it involves being thrown into a huge plastic ball, water and soap chucked in after you and the thrown down a hill to creat a washing mashing effect – much fun was had by all!!!!

We are now alone agin after saying goodby to Rich, Roger and Geoff’s mum who came out to visit. WE had a great time but it will be nice tyo do some woofing now!!!

Well, as this is costing an arm and a leg ina lesser know library i will leave you all,

Love tanya