Hi everyone, firstly we want to thank the Mossley crew for the little surprise hidden deep in my bag, i’ve only just found the little message book which you all put together. We enjoyed reading through the comments, and had no ideal about it, it was a great birthday treat along with the cards. Thank you all very much!Right then, so what have we been upto? Well we’re still in the city setting ourselves up, but we’ve also been doing plenty of site seeing. We visited the Auckland Museum, which was fantastic, there was so much to do and see, even a stuffed elephant! The museum has the biggest collection of Maori/Pacific art and crafts a big section on natural history, we saw loads of insects...even a Wetta and witnessed a volcanic eruption. Also there is a great section about New Zealand at war and topping it off I got chance to stand next to Edmund Hillary’s Ice axe. FantasticSO THEN THE BIG NEWS:We have a van, or should i say campervan, its amazing and has got everything we need, a sink, bed, stove, table, fridge, awning, and storage ...check out the video of our grand tour. We got a good deal on the camper, its showing its age on the outside a little but it came with everything like pots, pans and cutlery etc but more importantly its got new cam belts, fan belts, brakes, tyres, oil etc so we’ve been lucky to find it. Its a great runner, no problems and also insurance is really cheap, we got a quote from a specialist motorhome company for about £200 fully comp for the year! So lets hit the roadToday we’ve headed out to the beach to a place called Piha, its a really nice quiet stretch of coastline not too far from Auckland. Its been great testing out the van and to get out of the city and get a real taste of what NZ has to offer. The surf here is amazing, alot of people have holiday homes which lead direct onto the beach, we saw a bunch of rads just strolling out from their living room wet suited up and boards in hand ready to hit the surf.We took a stroll along the coastal track through the bush to a really good view point and then scrambled down to the beach. The wildlife was in abundance and i couldn’t believe how many starfish we saw, and the crabs are massive, the rock pools where just teaming with stuff. There was a hugh sea cave too but the tide was on its way in so we headed back to the camper to enjoy the rest of the sun before heading back to the city.We are just in the apartment now about to head out to see whats on offer for a birthday boy. Thanks again for the messages its good to hear what some of you are upto and looking forward to seeing some of you when you come out.Cheeryoxxx