Auckland-

Hi Everyone, Hope you all had a good New Year. We've been in Auckland for 6 days now and its a little bit like london and new york but a bit more greener even though its a city. We havnt done too much really, trying to resist the shops (but havent quite managed it :-)

We did visit an ice bar though which was really cool. You can only go in there for 25 minutes as its minus 5 degrees and you get given a big parker, gloves and snow boats!! Even the bar, walls and glasses are made out of ice. We tried to take better pictures inside it but as soon as you take your gloves off, your hands feel like you have froze bites!! cool tho!!

We then went up to a place called 'The Bay of Islands' for New Yrs Eve and that was really cool. Even on our backpackers budget we convinced ourselves that as it was new year, we deserved a double room rather than a dorm, but as none were available, only studios!! we talked ourselves into having a studio instead!! think the luxury travelling has got to stop soon tho otherwise we'll be seeing you lot a lot sooner than we thought we would be :-)

Had a really cool time, met some funny people, had a few (well quite alot) to drink and then watched the fireworks on the beach.

The next day we decided the best thing for a hang over was to go quad biking!! Was Excellant! we pictured just a track that you do circuits on but we was in for a surprise, you have to do 4 test tracks before they decide whether you can go up the cliffs. The pictures just don't do it justice, but then as the man pointed out, taking a picture on a quad bike, up a cliff that has no edge to it and you can just see a river far below if you dare to look down, probably isnt the best idea. you literally go vertical and onto 2 wheels at some points. The cliffs are narrow little paths, with rocks all over the show! We def want to do it again though.

We're back in the city now and leave for a trip in the morning that stops at all the main places in New Zealand and ends up in Queenstown (quite a long trip!!) but you can jump on and off the bus where you like and stay for however many nights you want to. It's called the 'stray bus' and set up for travellers, so hopefully we'll meet even more cool people and have loads more to tell you about.

Love Aim and Craig!! xx