A Warm Bed!

Hi there,
as the title suggests tonight holds in store for us a nice warm bed (sorry bluey) haha as we have arrived at my Unlce Malcolm's in Mt Maunganui, and Bluey is safely parked outside with us injside in the warmth. The reason this is such a big deal is that it has been FREEZING here, last night was so cold we considered sleeping in the tv room of the caravan park we were staying in even though the heater in there was pretty useless. In the end we just rugged up for bed with thermals, trackies, jumpers, beanies and I even wore a scarf!

But anyway, I suppose we left you in Pahia on wednesday...

Thursday morning was an especially chilly one for Boh, as the caravan park didnt seem to have hot showers for the men, despite the fact that my shower was toasty! So it was a bit of a rough start for poor old Boh, but the day warmed up a little as we made our way up to Kerikeri, which was where the Auckland backpackers had told us to ask for work. After a bit of a search we found the right place, but alas, we arrived to discover that the orchards had had a bad season so there was pretty much nothing in the way of seasonal work, and I suppose thats to be expected in light of the current economic climate. So there we were in Kerikeri, having driven half the length of the North Island on the advice of the guy from the backpackers, who said "nah, don't phone, just rock up!". But that was all cool because we found the B.O.I to be beautiful and definately worth the drive. But we decided that from there we would head back down on the other side of the island and set off towards the Waipou Forest. It was quite a drive, through scenic forestry, and we got our first real taste of New Zealand's winding roads, which gave Bohdi a good workout with no power-steering! Dad had told us to make sure we checked out the giant Kauri tree on our way through this area so we stopped off and walked the short track to "The Lord of the Forest"or in Mauri "Tane...something..."I can only remember that part of the name because that is the Mauri spelling for my name!!! So this 2000 year old plus tree that is believed to have been around during the lifetime of christ is actually named after me!! Haha well who knows who is named after who...After reaching Trounson Kauri Park, we stayed the night in a caravan park in the valley in the forest, surrounded by a beautiful river, and with very nice clean and tidy facilities (we spent a good deal of time in the warm tv room there!). This was followed by an incredibly cold night in Bluey, which didn't make for the most amazing rest, but we had a long day of driving ahead, our longest yet, so early (ish) the next morning....

We set off for Thames (who we have just learned is actually pronounced temmes...why...), which meant travelling the distance we had covered in the past 2 days, in reverse, plus quite a bit more, going through Auckland and out to the Coramandel Peninsula. It was a long trip, but made quicker by the interesting surrounds and some more winding roads. Really not a particularly eventful day, but we did cover a fair bit of distance. Finally arriving in Thames at about 5pm, we settled into a little caravan park on the outskirts of the town, bordered by a pretty stream, and, to Bohdi's delight, equipped with a FREE mini-golf course!!! This we got down to immediately, and I am quite proud to say I flogged! Hahaha, will teach the man at the park to say "oh, she doesn't want to waste time getting beaten at mini-golf"...yeah right...lol, so that was fun, for me. By the time the game was over our fingers were pretty much frozen solid, and it was time to thaw out by the tiny heater I mentioned earlier, not particularly effective unfortunately. Whilst attempting to reanimate our frozen digits we introduced ourselves to another couple who where also just there for the warmth, and probably the space, as they planned to spend the night in their Suziki Vitara....yeah....I can't believe we didn't walk into the tv room to find them asleep there this morning!

So this morning needless to say there was little time spent sitting in the cold, so we got started on today's trip immediately, as we had decided to take a bit of a detour on our way to Mt Maunganui to see the famous Hot Water Beach up on the eastern side of the Peninsula. This led to possibly the scariest experience of my life so far....our first experience driving on ice....so scary. There we were heading up the side of a hill on a winding road, when we see a sign "Ice and Grit" uh oh, and lots of frost on the plants on the sides of the road, double uh ohs. Luckily we erred on the side of caution, as even the kiwis where going slow, so Boh mananged to keep us on the road, even if we did a fair bit of sliding. So glad we were going up the hill and not down it! Scariest thing was that someone had already had a crash this morning, as there was glass all over one section of the road, and skid marks on the edge, and there were some cops and road crew there warning people to slow down. Phew, so we survived that, but are not looking fopward to the driving on the colder South Island now! Anyway we got to Hot Water Beach and were not dissapointed, though the tide was in so the only part of us that felt the water was our toes, which we dug down in the sand at the direction of another beach-goer, and were shocked to find very hot water, too hot in fact. So this was kinda cool, but time to hit the road again after a quick call home to catch up with mum and dad. After a swing by Whangamata, one of dad's old surf hangouts, we pushed on to reach Mt Maunganui by about 4 or 5pm (we aren't really keeping track of time that much). It was great to see Uncle Malcolm again, and he had soon settled us in, and even took us for a spin around the Mt and picked up some stuff for dinner, as he has gone out to a friends 50th, leaving us at home with the spa!!! Haha, I sacrificed my spa time for the blog, but Boh braved the cold and had a nice relaxing one. So here we are, and it's definately bed time, especially seeing as though we have a lovely warm bed to go to...mmm...

So Goodnight!
xoxoxox