Roadtrip

There is a permanent curtain of water descending from the skies.
Yesterday, we passed from the Auckland region into the Waikomo. Huge, sumptiously green hills roll over the landscape. Oak and fir forests coat the hillsides. They are so vibrantly green, that it could almost hurt your eyes to look at them for too long. Driving is truly the perfect way to see it.The roads are good, wide and smooth although twisted like a knitting pattern. Alex seems convinced I'm going to career off the edge into the abyss below, but despite the crazy speeds the natives take the corners at, I'm not only cautious but still reading the kph as mph, which naturally keeps us slower anyways. Apart from the odd turning on of the windscreen wipers when I am meant to be signalling and vice versa due to the canny switching sides of these vital levers on my steering wheel, the automatic is actually very simple. It obeys the basic principle of 'Go' and 'Stop' without any of the fiddly gear bits inbetween to worry about.
There are calla lilies growing like weeds on the sides of the road, pure dots of white against the verdant green.
We stopped in Raglan for the night, a point of particular interest to surfers, who kept turning up at ungodly hours to ride the storm tossed sea. We parked up all of ten metres away from the waves, up from the black sand that shows this is volcano land. There was a massive storm, rain falling from the sky all night long, battering at the roof of Newt. There were signs all over Raglan forbidding camping and overnighters - the residents are haters of the backpackers apparently. Alex got some stories up on the net that told of Raglan citizans coming out of there homes at 1am to pelt tents and campervanms with flour, or call the police out on them. We gambled on the weather being so horrible no-one would feel the need to attack our vehicle, but still it was an anxious night constantly waiting for the sound of flour bombs hitting the windscreen!
We couldn't cook due to the rain, so feasted on olives, babybels and bizarre sandwiches - marmite and salt and vinegar crisps anyone?
Once the morning came and we realised we had survived the night, we had breakfast, again an odd mix. I figure sandwiches are going to be what I am eating for most meals for the next two months, so I better make them as interesting as possible. I had nutella and banana in mine, Alex decided to stick with peanut butter. Mine had the odd aftertaste of watermelon. Figure that one out!
We abandoned Raglan and it's never-ending rainstorm and drove through some gorgeous country-side to reach Hamilton. We are currently at the gardens, having looked at the rhododendrons and successfully cooked up some scrambled eggs and beans for lunch, we might venture into the town...if the rain holds off!

Hope everybody back home is doing good! Drop us a line and let us know! :)