Endless Summer....

Well, we've arrived at our next destination, the Endless Summer Lodge in Ahipara, and it is amazing! The Lodge itself is just beautiful, and we are right on the beach front!! We spent 2 nights in the van on the way up and they were fun (if not uncomfortable at times... especially when the air mattress sprang a leak! We managed to kind of fix it, but it meant that whenever one of us moved, the other was catapulted about 6 foot up in the air.... hmmm...)

Our first night was spent at the Kai iwi lakes, and we were the only campers there! We made a brew on a little beach area with our camping stove and watched the sun go down! It was fantastic! Once it got dark though, it was a tad scary... Friday the 13th kept springing to mind as we were parked by a big lake with nobody else around... but it was very exciting :)

We saw some amazing scenery en route too and followed the West Coast all the way to our current destination. The most amazing views were around every corner and we could go from a rolling English countryside view to a Canadian Rockies type view in literally 30 seconds! The most breathtaking place we saw though was Hokianga Harbour. We got out of the van and just couldn't believe it! There was sand, forest, lakes, crashing waves from the ocean, mountains, hills... its the first time a view quite literally took my breath away... maybe I'm getting old :)

Sorry, we cant put any pics on this entry (but the cafe we are at hasn't got very good facilities and it costs quite a lot too! Also, sorry for the slow response to emails... its for the same reason), but hopefully we'll be able to soon as we have some great ones!!

So, anyway, Ahipara... its a great place and we are enjoying our job- we are making beds and cleaning and stuff and for the first time in my life, I don't mind it.... still, it helps that it all only takes 2 hours and then we can chill and sit in the sun or go for a surf....

In fact, we went for our first surf yesterday!!!!! We both have the wetsuit chaffs to prove it too!! It was a lot more difficult than we both thought and the waves were really quite bad too... Trace couldn't get on the board and hated the waves coming at her... she said she had a near death experience.... and my board hit me in the head at one point when I stupidly tried to lift it above the wave... doh! Everything went very bright and suddenly I was being pulled along by my leg rope... lol, still, it taught me a valuable lesson..... never to surf again! Only kidding, I'm hoping to go again later. However, Trace may take a bit more convincing.

We've met lots of folk at the Lodge and we are helping a German guy called Max with his English... talk about the blind leading the blind... LOL, he'd reet fit in up north now tho I tell thee.

Anyhoo, we'll write more soon and hope all is well in Blighty.

Laters

M&T x