New Zealand North Island

We went to Taupo and Rotorua after the bay of plenty. Taupo was nice because of a free camp spot that we found along with many free attractions including a museum dedicated to Honey making. There are many Geysers and geothermal attractions in the area however most of them cost around $50 just to view.

Next we went to the surf capital of New Zealand, Raglin. This is the spot that much of "Endless Summer" was filmed. We only surfede one day because of the exorbitant cost to stay and rent boards there. There were a few spots in the area. The main spot was a perfect left handed break which meant that it was very crowded on bigger days. Therefore the day that we went, we went to a beach break close by called Gnaranui.

From there we went to the Waitomo glow work caves which are giant limestone caves full of Stalactytes and Stalacmytes (SP?). But also living in these caves are thousands of glow worms which , when the lights are turned out, look like a child's room filled with glow in the dark stars.

From there we went to New Plymouth and saw the giant Mount Taranaki. Which is the only mountain around and is snow caped most of the year. It was also here that we discovered that one of out break pads had entirely worn out and was now grinding the disc to shreads. ($230 later, Biff was back in action)

From there we went to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand and did some sight seeing for a couple of days which included a free museum and a zoo and we jumped a 2:30 AM Ferry to the South island.

We are now in one of the most northern points of the Southern Island (Able Tasman Natl Park) and we are waiting for the rain (Which has been coming down hard for three days now) to stop so we can do a 2 day kayak/hiking trip.