Well the last couple days have been pretty sweet... (well i am in New Zealand, would you expect anything less?) Markus and i got van and b-lined it out of Aukland (as Jay Zemuda would call it the butt hole of new zealand) and headed for Port Charles, a Podunk little place out on the east coast of the north island. We took a lot of pictures along the way and tried not driving off the road (wide straight roads are not in the new zealander's vocabulary).We reached port Charles about dark and found a camping spot along the bay. We had a hot meal of canned spaghetti and then hung out in the van playing cards in our sleeping bags (it was ridiculously cold). Sleeping in a camper van isn't all that bad... at least it's dry.
The next day we got up, ate, packed up and headed to probably on of the most beautiful places i've seen.
Hahei beach on the Coromandel peninsula where I felt like i should be on the set of a movie with Heidi Klum running down the beach towards me (ok i know she doesn't act... but i can dream can't I!?!?) After a lot of pictures and a little hike, we took off down the coast a little further to some hotwater beaches. There were about 80 people plus just hanging out in puddles they've dug. We got there and finally found a pre-dug hole and sat in about 106 degree water. There were some places where the water was so hot it would scald your feet... you had to be careful. It was pretty hilarious hearing about 8 different languages cussing when somebody found a hot spot. 
After out hot water bath we cleaned up and drove down to Whatagaaw.... i dont know how to spell it... (pretty much everything here is spelled weird. WH is pronounce F... ? weirdos. ) We arrived, bought some food and then started to get ready for bed... when we were about to turn in we decided to ask the people standing out on their balcony if it was ok to camp at the turn around for the night. They said it was cool and invited us in for a beer. Steve-o and Gorilla (no joke) were a couple of guys 40 and 60+ who were amazingly nice and a lot of fun. They had a band room so Steve-0 played guitar, Gorilla on drums i played bass, and Markus messed around on a jimbe... we jammed for about an hour or more, played everything from beetles to red hot chili peppers and then went up to watch a rugby game. We watched some rugby and played with steve-o's parrot named sweety. About 12 rolled around and we took off to the van. So now here i am in Rotorua waiting for the rain to go away so we can do something outside like visiting some geysers or mountain biking?Thank you all for your prayers, and thoughts. I'd love to hear from you... sorry i dont have time to write you all individually. Pray for patience because living with a complete stranger who has a little trouble with english for 2 weeks in a van may be a little stressful. I miss you all.
