Losing my tan in New Zealand

I made it here Saturday night-delayed by about 1 1/2 hours. I've never been on a plane with an upstairs before! Definitely better to fly Air New Zealand back-a meal and everything! I got my car rental which is a huge step down from the one in Australia. It's a '98 Nissan Sunny-basically Sentra and there's no cruise control or aux plug for me to listen to my iPod. Huge! I took someone's advice and headed north out of Auckland first to the Bay of Islands. Once I got there, it was pretty, but not really what I expected, so I left. Yesterday I basically drove the whole day to get to a cute little beach called Hahei. There was a nice hike to a cave and now I'm headed back south towards Rotorua. I may get the chance to see Elvor in Mt. Manganui if I'm able to contact her. I think I'll be more excited about the scenery in the south island-if there weren't tropical trees around, I'd think I was in Ireland with all the rolling green hills and sheep.

I'll be driving as much as possible and stopping when something is really interesting. I want to get as much out of my crappy car as I can and I only have it until next week. I suppose if I get to see everything I came for, I could be back at the end of the month! We'll see how it all turns out.