Day 92 : Mount Maunganui to Rotorua

• Walked up Mount Maunganui and took in the views of the town and sea
• Drove to Rotorua and went for a walk in the Redwood forest
• Camped up in a basic conservation site
• Amazing stars and adult glow worms in the hedges!

Day 91 : Glow worm caving

Today we drove an hour or so south of Hamilton to Waitomo, famous for its large cave system and glow worms. We had been recommended a trip where you go “black water rafting” – you don a wetsuit and hard hat and spend a few hours scrambling and floating through the water filled caves on an inner tube, much of it without torches so the only light is the glow worms (or rather their poo, which is what actually glows)!

The water was pretty nippy (jumping backwards off a waterfall into pitch black cold water was a bit of a shock!), but we had a great couple of hours and saw lots and lots of glow worms.

We’re camped down the road at Otorohanga, next to a native bird park, so maybe we’ll see some Kiwi birds tomorrow…

Day 90 : Rugby world cup

We took a mini bus into Hamilton from our base at the Glenview club to soak up the atmosphere before the game – Hamilton is quite small but there was a good crowd of Welsh supporters in the “Fan Zone” set up for the world cup where they closed the roads and had a big screen showing last night’s rugby.

Thankfully the rain we’d had all morning stopped for a few hours whilst the game was on. Our seats were great – really close to the action – and the atmosphere was buzzing with lots of support for both Wales and Samoa. It was a nervously close game but Wales managed to scrape a win, so Louise was very happy as it was the first time she’s seen us win (she was going to give up coming to the games if they lost this one)!

Day 89 : Underground tunnels and animal cuddles

• Pancakes and Quebecan maple syrup for breakfast
• Walked along an old gold-mine railway, through very dark mining tunnels and along a cold railway tunnel in Karangahake gorge – it was really fun. Saw our first cave glow worms!
• Went to Bullswool farm park to go and cuddle various farm animals and dogs :-)
• Drove on to Hamilton and parked at a temporary caravan park in the car-park of a social club – ready for the match tomorrow.
• We like hokey pokey – which is basically cubes of crunchie

Day 88 : Wentworth falls

• Tried for the first time to free camp we stayed in a picnic site / lay-by with no signs to say we couldn't. We were asleep early prob by 8.30 - 9. At about 11pm we were woken up by flashing police lights outside and we were thinking ahhhh but after ages and more flashing lights and stuff, a massive lorry went past and I think it was just an escort for the extra wide load. We then we didn't sleep so well and Will was convinced the wind was gonna topple the van!
• Drove to Whangamata where I bought a hat and gloves from a pound shop (and a Welsh flag for Sunday)
• Walked along the Wentworth valley to a waterfall
• Drove to Waihi and saw a huge open gold / mineral mine
• Found a caravan park in Waihi beach for a hopefully more restful nights sleep!

Day 87 : Hot water beach

Got up early to go for a short walk to the cliff top at Wenderholm park where we were camped – great views and lots of interesting birds. Drove to the Coromandel Peninsula, just east of Auckland, and headed to hot water beach – where there are hot springs under the sand so at low tide you can dig your own spa!

We arrived at just the right time for digging, so hired a spade and took over maintenance of a hole that was being vacated by some Irish rugby tourists. You have to keep digging at the hole to get more hot water in, and eventually our enthusiastic digging made it too hot (one of the springs is 60 degrees C and the other is 67)! You couldn’t even walk on the sand around the pool because it was so hot!

After poaching ourselves for a couple of hours, we drove around the corner to Cathedral Cove where there is a natural rock arch, but we decided we didn’t have enough time to walk down to it before dusk, so we just went halfway down to Gemstone Bay.

Tonight we’re free-camping in the hills above the coast – no signs saying that we can’t so hopefully we won’t get moved on.

Day 86 : Speeding along 90 mile beach

• Had a good nights sleep in "The Beast". Went for a run along the beach (we are very out of shape having done nothing for 3 weeks) it’s very windy!
• Our present of land yachting (thanks Tom & Gemma) was sadly cancelled as it is too windy! So we exchanged it for quad biking on the beach. So we whizzed up and down the beach at 80km/hr and Will scared me by going up and down the sand banks, it was cool.
• We drove down to Wenderholm arriving in the dark set up camp in a national park (which we paid $5 for. We haven't yet managed to “free camp” as it doesn’t appear to be legal everywhere).