Lost down under

Hello folks,

I'm back online. To be honest, we've been living the dream rather than writing about it!

So... before we set off for Eagle Bay down south in Western Australia, I thought I'd let you know what we've been up to for the last couple of weeks.

A bit of a list coming up...

After Welly Wood (no celebrities i'm afraid), we hotfooted it to Tongariro - the volcano area - to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. This is a 19.5km trek through the pass of 2 volcanoes over volcanic terrain with a punishing 800m ascent all in one go (think ridge, very slippery scramble, big drops on either side). But we did it!! And in 7 hours - the recommended time in Lonely Planet. Of course I was walking like John Wayne and it took me 4 days to recover, but I am very pleased with myself. Pix to follow.

It also didn't stop us moving on the next day to do another 8Km walk to some waterfalls and swim in a (I tell no lie) boiling hot stream made bearable by the beautiful Waikato river into which it flowed. So lots of swimming there and chatting to boys on the Kiwi experience (an 18-25 bus). Checked out more thermal places, geysers etc then had to stay in Cosy Corner - the most dreadful holiday park we've been to - it's got an apt name!

Then up to stay in Coromandel - beautiful park area peninsula with fab beaches for boogie boards and snorkelling. Met up with our friends Shirley and Mark and their two great kids - Maya and Isaac. And his pets... well Melody, the praying mantis which was just chewing on a cricket when we were introduced. 'Bug boy' as Tony called him is BIG into bugs and he has given us a healthy regard for scary, ugly, monstor like bugs of ALL sizes. Never again will I scream a huge dragonfly settles on my head. His favourites are Wetas (read back over the blog for how horrible they are) and I'll post a pic of one he played with while on a walk.

Great fun catching up with them all - haven't seen Shirley and Mark for about 8 years but it was like it was yesterday. Took us snorkelling - snapper, blue cod, spotties. Then we went back with them to check out their fab house in West Auckland. We were supposed to leave on the Monday but by 1pm we still hadn't gone anywhere so decided to just check out a few nearby beaches then come back for a big bed, great shower, hugs from the kids and another late night drinking session (ouch my head).

They finally chucked us out on Tues morning with an itinerary for the week until we met up with them again on the Friday.

Mark Micklefield's North Island in 3 days

Goat Island Marine reserve - snorkelled there and saw 2 eagle rays (awesome with a capital 'O')

Pikiri beach - white sands that stretch for miles with big rollers

Uketiti (or something like that) campsite on beach - apparently it's a naturist site, just as well as Tony went for a naked dip one night - I took pictures of a perfect arched rainbow that emerged and descended back in the ocean.

Bay of Islands - Russell. Kooky place, great boogie boarding (I am thinking of entering the Olympics 2012 as a competitor I'm so good - can you see me on the Thames?)

Bay of Islands - a day on a catamaran to watch dolphins: the bay of islands is beautiful, the sky is always blue, the water clear and the sun hot. The day we go out on the boat, you can't see your hand in front of you, the swell is so big in the harbour a little dinghy has to pick us up as the boat cannot come in (a first for them) and it's raining. So much for seeing the islands. But it did clear a little window to see the spectacular bottlenose dolphins totally clearing the water and leaping together in the air - magical. And for Tony to go swimming with them - i didn't go in as I wanted to watch them, but then regretted it when they played with him (he always was a little plaything).

Kauri forest: fantastic trees that were chopped down by the settlers so only a few remain - up to 2000 years old. And they are BIG.

Puketi forest - last night in our fab campervan - we're gonna miss it...

but not that much as we spent a weekend at a great house in Wenderholme and went to Tarawhenui regional park with Shirley and the gang and went snorkelling, and more boogie boarding - Isaac: 'Look Fidelma's on our boogie board AGAIN!'

It was great to catch up with Shirley and Mark and if they are reading this - thanks so much for having us and putting up with us - we had a great time, but Tony is still repeating: Oh Daddy, I don't want my cicada to die, I wanna it to fly.' (cue south american accent). You had to be there I guess.

Feel sad, that we don't know when we will be seeing Isaac and Maya again - they are great kids, let's hope it's not too long into the future.

So.... that was it, NZ. We had an absolutely fantastic time there. Will definitely go back if funds allow to explore more. Miss it already.

We're now in Australia with Lin and Sharks, Roisin and Lucy - having a ball but that will have to wait for another day.

Fidelma xxx