Nearly ready to leave NZ

Today is Saturday - only one more day to go. Since I last posted we have crossed from South to North Island and done a bit of touring on North Island. The crossing on Thursday was great. We got up to a lovely sunny morning and this carried on for the whole day so we had a magical trip up the Queen Charlotte Sound and out into Cook Strait. On the way up from Kaikoura to Picton we passed some basking seals which added to our journey.

Unfortunately there it is very windy but the trip was still OK. Three and a half hours later we were in Wellington - just in time for Thursday night rush hour! We had decided to stop overnight in Masterton - which was actually a duff decision as by the time we got there it was dark and hard to find somewhere to stay. Still we managed in the end. We had rain overnight but when we got up Friday it was dry so we set off for Hastings where we had lunch. We then drove on to Napier but didn't stop. There was a police incident going on in one of the residential areas at the time - the day before someone had shot and killed one policeman and injured 2 others and was holed up in his home. It was all very tense and lasted 50 hours in then end with the dead policeman lying in the street for most of that time as he shot at anyone trying to get to him. Predictably he is dead himself now though. Anyway - we drove on up the coast to Gisborne where we spent last night. Not really that much to see on the way there but when we left today we drove through the Waioeka gorge which was 58 kms long. That was quite something. We passed through Whakatane where we stopped for lunch and then on to Rotorua where we went to visit the Waiomanga Thermal Site. This is home to the world's largest hot spring - much like the Boiling Lake in Dominica which we never actually got to see.

Good visit to the site though - Jerry was really impressed. Because we didn't leave there until 5pm we have stopped overnight in Rotorua. Hotel room has a huge spa pool so I will be in there shortly! Tomorrow we will be going to Auckland via Matamata where there is a place that Jerry wants to see - something to do with hobbits. Next blog is likely to be from Hong Kong!!