Back in Palmerston North now after our trip home yesterday. The weather was supposed to turn all nasty and wet but we managed to get home again before too much hit. It was a beautiful day to leave Tauranaga and drive south.

We arrived in Taupo at lunchtime. This is a lake in the centre of the North Island and is quite a tourist spot. We popped in and visited Nigel's youngest sister for a few minutes and then had some lunch before continuing our trip down the island. Isn't it just gorgeous?

The next town of interest was Taihape (pronounced Tie happy). This is also known, in NZ, as the Gumboot capital (hence the picture of the big gumboot that stands in town). Every year they have gumboot throwing competitions. Being a farming community the gumboot can be seen everywhere!

We played "Can you name the next town" game with the boys, trying to educate them a little about NZ geography. They did pretty well and earnt a little money on the way but I think there was a lot of kiwi ingenuity being used with the prevalence of road signs :-) They're not silly are they?

By the time we got to Bulls we were just half an hour from home but tired and hungry so it was a quick trip to McD's for an ice cream to give us the last bit of energy to get to the house. Yay for McD's!!!!! Actually I snacked on a cheeseburger but the filet o fish looked pretty enticing as well.

So we have made it. Thankfully the weather held up although we did run into some snow swirls on the desert road (the road through the central plateau). Last night it snowed quite heavily for this time of year and that road was closed with some cars stuck so God was good to us. But Palmy is cold and I have hugged the fire most of the day and worn gloves to stop my fingers falling off.

I hope you're a little warmer than I am!