New Zealand

I am a bit behind on things so I'll try to keep it short for your sake as well as mine.
As mentioned, we got to Charles and Sophia's place on Saturday (which is in Ngaruawahia, not Hamilton itself). Sunday, Charlie drove the two of us around the coromandel peninsula to see some of the wonderful beaches, bays and countryside.
Monday we borowed a car and went to Rotorua, saw lots of smelly but very impressive vulcanic activity and a few other nice things such as a waterfall, a spring and of course the big Rotorua lake.
Tuesday, Charles drove us down to Leo and April's farm close to Pirongia Mountain. The farm is really beautiful and they were in the middle of calving season, so lots of little calves to see :). We took off to the Waitomo glowworm caves and stopped at the kiwi house in Otorohanga underway. We saw our first real live Kiwi's! The chrystal and glowworn caves at Waitomo were also very impressive.
Wednesday we wanted to get a rental car in Hamilton but Hertz had no cars at that location anymore, so we had to go to Rotorua to pick one up. So we both drove down there and picked up a very nice Mazda 3 and went on the Skyline Gondola we had had no time for that Monday. We took 3 rides down the luge, which was amazing. Luge is like a small sledge with wheels with a very simple braking and steering system that can go very fast downhill. After that, we each drove a car back and that pretty much was our day.
Thursday morning we left quite early and drove into Auckland, went up in the Skytower and enjoyed the view over the city. We then drove into Waikatere Ranges just West of the city and beside the already impressive winding road went to a black sand beach and saw some more stuff along the way and headed north. When we got to Wellsford, we found a Bed and Breakfast which turned out to be run by an old Dutch lady who had lived in New Zealand for 60-odd years.
Friday, we set off North again and made only two major stops, one at the Kauri museum in Matakohe and another at a very large Kauri tree named Tane Mahuta (Not sure of the spelling, I left some of my paperwork in the car :S). Now we are in Kaitaia and we will head to Cape Reinga tomorrow and then head back down again and follow the east-coast to Auckland, although we don't intend to get back to Auckland until Sunday.