Moving on...finally

The other day Will got up at 5am (after going to bed at 1:30) to go fishing with Malcolm out on a boat - after 5 bumpy hours they returned a little green but triumphant with three fish. Meanwhile Sam had gone to the skate park with Ben and I enjoyed a lovely peaceful morning reading in the van and then wandering along to the big wave cafe.

In the evening we went to the Art House cinema to see a film called Last Paradise which is based in Taranaki. The Art House cinema is filled with big comfy sofas and me Sam and Will snuggled up on a big sofa with a glass of wine (not for Sam). The film is about adrenaline sports in New Zealand and how they have evolved over the past 50 years, it's actually very interesting. At the interval I went to the loo and an older guy said to me 'are you enjoying the film?' 'yes' I replied 'it's really good'. 'They put the interval in a funny place' he said 'oh have you seen it?' I asked... an uncomfortable pause and some foot shuffling from him...'actually I wrote it' he said...uncomfortable pause and foot shuffling from me...then we chatted through the interval. The film was very good and I would recommend it to all.

The next day was Sam's birthady and we woke to pouring rain, so we drove to MacDonalds, had a breakfast and called the family for birthday wishes.The good news is that because it was raining Sam's friend was able to come with us and we spent a few hours at the indoor swimming pool on the slides, the climbing wall, the wave machine, floats etc. Then in the evening we went out with all the people we had met in new Plymouth for a nice (expensive!!) meal. For his birthday Sam got a camera from his Dad and us and some clothes, sweets and surfing mags. He also got money and is excited about buying new things (so far a new ipod case!)

We have finally left New Plymouth and yesterday headed for Taupo, fortunately it has stopped raining but the drive was a long one (about 4 hrs). Taupo has a huge lake (size of Singapore) and last night we free camped infront of the lake, I don't think we were really allowed to and spent the night worrying, especially as we had just watched a film which kept making us (well Will) jump. This morning we got up and drove to Huka falls. We stopped by a park and made breakfast of scrambled eggs and weetabix (not together) then we walked along the walkway to Huka falls, along a beautiful clear river (sort of a bluey green colour - lovely). The falls themselves were amazing and because of all the rain were really powerful. We stood and watched them and Sam took lots of pictures with his new camera. Then we walked back (took about 2hrs in total) we rested in the natural hot springs which ran down into the river. The springs are volcanic and the water in some parts is so hot that you can hardly sit in it. There is also lots of pumice stone and Will and Sam carved one into a heart for me (aaaahhhh!!). A Maori guy asked me where I came from, 'England' he said, 'Oh I thought you were a Maori!' as you can tell the tan is coming along nicely, although we have to slap on loads of sun lotion due to the thin ozone here. After the falls we called into Taupo Bungi and Sam really wanted to jump, but there are some things he can do when he is 18 and his mum isn't watching! Then we went to a cafe and charged the computer whilst Sam did his Maths and then we ate fish and chips by Lake Taupo. We are now parked up on a free camp site, I'm not sure about it though, it's a bit scary and there are lots of dirty people here (I'm sure they aren't really dirty people but it just feels that way right now). So that's the news, tomorrow we will head to Rotorua I think and hopefully see the Mouri village and go on the luge.