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Many things have caught our attention in New Zealand, including public toilets. We've already posted a snapshot of the ornately-decorated Kawakawa loos on the North Island. Today Lesley enjoyed the fresh air and views from this clean and well-kept rest room on the South Island. There aren't many public loos in (rural) China one would hang around longer than necessary, except perhaps the ones in Lijiang with tourist board DVDs playing as one squats.

 
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After our first night of 'freedom camping' (in a lay-by round the coast from Wellington famed for its Little Blue penguins) we checked-in for our ferry across Cook Strait, to South Island. The boat must once have served a Cross-Channel route because it was once named "Pride of Cherbourg". It was a spectacular 3-hour 92 km crossing, especially when we entered the narrow Marlborough Straits. Here it was that Captain Cook based himself on his various New Zealand explorations before claiming the land for Great Britain. How splendid! Picton is the small town on the South Island where the ferry docks. We drove a few miles round the coast to a lovely campsite at Aussie Bay where Freda and Edie played with the ducks, collected crabs and swung on a swing. Rain in the night.

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ELF on the Marlborough Sounds
 
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I remember seeing this DIY hairdressing tip in my mum's magazine about thrity years ago. For a quick transition from long to short hair, gather all your hair up in a pony-tail on top of your head and hack it off. Edie is tired of her fine, flyaway hair matting into big tufts overnight, so we tried this technique in the campsite this morning. It seemed to work and, after a bit of trimming, looks pretty close to a salon job if you ask me. No more tearful hair-brushing for Edie though she might have some more questions as to her gender. At the swimming pool yesterday a little girl in the 'tarzan swing' queue turned to her and asked, "Are you a boy or a girl?" Edie found this very amusing. "Hah!" she said to me later, "Isn't it obvious? I've got long hair!" It was only later we started observing that so do most of the boys.

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Edie's new look. It will sit better after it's been washed and blow-dried of course!
 
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Inspecting the mudslide
Never mind bubbling mud, we were very nearly stuck in the mud today. Ali spotted a scenic route that followed the Whanganui River downstreamthrough a lush valley, much more picturesque than the main road apparently. We were to pass through a small village called Jerusalem, home to a historic church, and several Maori settlements. The only snag was that much of it was on gravel. Just as I was musing at how like Yunnan the driving was - rough, pot-holed tracks with landslide debris, we found our way blocked by an unsurpassable mudslide. I remembered that the Tui insurance covers us for most things except driving idiocy, so we decided to turn back. Fortunately we had only travelled 25 km down the 97 km route, so it wasn't as much as a detour as it might have been and we were able to enjoy the thick forest scenery until that point. No gravel roads after heavy rain from now on, unless there's an easy way out!

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We visited a place called the Honey Hive today, where we saw lots of interesting DVDs, pictures and exhibits all about how honey is made. Did you know that one bee only produces about three quarters of a teaspoonful of honey in its lifetime? And did you know that bees can carry up to their own body weight of pollen and nectar when they fly? They carry it in special baskets on their back legs, and in their honey tummy. We got to taste lots of different kinds of honey and see the bees busy at work in part of a hive that was in a glass display. We could see the forager bees come and go from the hive, and the worker bees busy inside. It was great. I bought some homemade fudge and Edie bought herself a chocolate ice-cream. Mum paid for half and we used our pocket money for the rest. I made my fudge last a whole day, which is amazing for me!

 
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Freda with a half-height Pohutu Geyser.
We couldn't really pass through Rotorua without splashing out on some geothermal sight-seeing, so we spent half a day at Te Puia park. We saw the world-famous Puhuto Geyser [see photo], bubbling mud and steaming craters, kiwis, maori wood-carving and NZ flax weaving. It was raining on and off but the natural 'underfloor heating' kept us warm. What's more, we all seem to have adapted to the sulphur smell. It reminded me of the brewery areas of Edinburgh where the air can be a bit off-putting until one gets used to it. So the good news is, we're back on egg sandwiches.

 
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On our 250 km drive South to Rotorua today we were stopped in our tracks by a village that's gone corrugated crazy. A wool shop started the craze in 1986 when they built a corrugated shop shaped like a sheep. The local tourist board followed, shaping its i-site like a dog [see above]. Now almost every shop has a colourful, corrugated front or sign. We haven't a clue what the village is called, or anything else about it, but we took photos and bought Freda some flip-flops - business it wouldn't otherwise have received had it not been for the quirky architecture.

We are now in Rotorua. Ali's taken the girls to visit a steaming, stinking public park by our campsite and I'm having a study session in the library. I might actually get my Diploma homework submitted on time. We plan to visit a volcanic/thermal park tomorrow, which hosts the biggest geyser in New Zealand as well as bubbling mud pools. The girls are already complaining about the sulphur smell again and are worried about possible erruptions, so I'm not sure how long we'll last here! More news when we can...
 
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After the hot springs we wound our way through the forested mountains to reach the very blustery West coast. Our main aim was to visit the Kauri forests, home to some fabulously tall Kauri trees, large snails and giant weta. As you can see, our nature vocabularly has expanded in the last week. We stayed at another Department of Conservation camp site, where we met Theo [left] and his fellow worker, who's name I couldn't pronounce and was too shy to ask for again. Both Maori, they are also descendents of Scots with Grandfathers named Cummings. Theo taught us a lot about the forest - the creatures, the trees and Maori remedies for cuts and bruises. He also showed a great interest in our lives in China, enthralled to hear the girls twittering away in Chinese together. Theo lived in Singapore and Malaysia for over five years and said he loved it but was quick to point out that he had to come home for such clean, fresh air.

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Edie with Tane Mahuta, the King of the forest.
This 2,000-year old Kauri tree is 51.5 m tall. The trunk alone is 17.7 m high. As the Kauri is self-shedding, there are no branches on the trunk itself, which adds to its grandeur.
 
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Getting stinky and black in a hot spring
We’re leaving the East coat today and moving West to hot springs and tall forests. Four days into our van trip we’re still smiling. The girls bang their heads on the roof above their beds less often and as we eat through our food supplies we have more stowing space. We’ve stopped off in Kawakawa to visit the famous public toilets (lots of people in there with their cameras out which, under different circumstances, might seem a tad odd. I’m pulling my hair out in a café that advertises free wi-fi but the wi-fi doesn’t work. Just when I log on to a site I lose the connection. Maintaining enough internet presence to participate in my on-line Dip TESOL is proving to be very stressful. It’s verging on ruining my holiday though I’m trying hard to chill out when we’re on the road. I was hoping I could just pop into a café, upload/download the required documents and do my homework in the van in the evenings. The homework is going fine but everything else is a nightmare. Early days. I’m trying not to get down-hearted. 

In the afternoon we stopped off at some Maori hot springs. It was a very low-key, inexpensive set-up, which is just as well, as the girls couldn’t tolerate the sulphur smell for more than an hour. It was cold and raining so we stayed as submerged as possible. Our silver jewellery turned black in the volcanic mud and our skin had an egg sandwich odour until we next found a hot shower.

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The highly decorative Kawakawa toilets
 
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Steam train at Whangarei
We’re in the small town of Whangarei today, gathering local information, updating our blog and searching for a famous kiwi called Sparky. We called in at the Native Bird Recovery Centre where he lives – apparently the only tame kiwi in New Zealand (we’re talking birds here) – but the centre is closed at the weekend. We avoided the expensive museum next door and opted for the free bush walk around the grounds, visiting a traditional homestead and bird-spotting. I was excited to see a pair of Kakariki (yellow-crowned parakeet, only found in New Zealand) and lots of Pukeko. We’ve also seen several Tui, Kereru (NZ pigeon), a flock of dotterel on the beach and a number of other birds we haven’t managed to identify, even with our newly-purchased bird book! We’ve also seen lots of possum and weasel traps, that feast on the ground-dwelling native birds. Sometimes our surroundings seem so similar to Scotland, then we’ll drive past a load of palm trees or a cluster of white-painted timber houses. We’ll spend another night on the East coast, South of Bay of Islands, before heading inland to explore some forest regions.