Well, time for up-date again. I have now been in NZ for quite a few days, and it has been wonderful! I really just love New Zealand!!! Could probably spend the rest of my life here, it is so beautiful!! I have had this good feeling about everything since I came here and all the people are so nice and friendly. It is fun to notice, but it is a completely different type of backpackers here. People here are up for adventure, enjoy outdoor stuff and yes, NZ is just the perfect playground for anyone who loves activity, nature and stunning sights. Australia was a lot more just party mood, getting wasted and lying on the beach the whole day. Anyway, I really like to be here!

My plan with the two other girls did not work out since they had trouble with hiring the van, so I decided to book a bus-pass up to the northern part of North Island for a couple of days. I could leave the next day, which left me with a whole day more to kill in Auckland. I decided to take a ferry out to one of the many islands surrounding Auckland, Waiheke Island. The trip was rather nice; weather amazing, and mood quite good! As I came to Waiheke, I joined a bus making a small tour around the island to the most important views, and it was nothing really special. The island has beautiful bays and many vineyards, and was quite pretty On the way back on the ferry I sat opposite a very young couple with their 2year old child, who were disabled: he couldn't talk, but they made signs with him, and he pointed on heaps of stuff and made signs, like boat, helicopter, drink, help etc. He was very sweet and I really enjoyed observing him. Back in Auckland I went to Victoria Markets, a small market with local shops, and I bought a NZ-jumper (yes, it is cold down here, they don't sell bikinis, but winter-outfit) and a NZ necklace made of cow bone (should bring good fortune for travellers:). Then I walked along the harbour back: Auckland is the city of sailing, and all the rich boys have a yacht here (NZ won the American Cup two times).

Another thing to quickly mention about Auckland is that it has been built on volcanic grounds, with 44 volcanoes in the surroundings. These volcanoes erupt approximately every 200 years, which unfortunately for Auckland is within the next 5 to 10 years.As I came back to the hostel, there was a guy singing with his guitar on Queens street (the main street). He sang amazingly well, and I sat down a while and listened to him. I was very impressed by him, and we walked back to the hostel together when he finished (he also stayed there)! All in all a good, relaxing day!

Next morning the bus picked me up at 7am, and we left for Paihia, the Bay of Islands. Our first stop was at a giant tree, Papa, and we had to all hug it for good weather (Maori-believe), and so we did! It did not really help though; we had bad weather the whole day, overcast, cold and rainy! Not good, cause the next stop was at Goat Island, where we were due to go snorkelling. There were huge fish in the water, but no one wanted to jump in - except for the Danish Viking! I jumped in my bikini, went for a rather quick snorkelling, and freezing my ass off I concluded that it wasn't worth it, I could hardly see half a meter ahead of me under the water. But hey, I did it! (Everyone else thought I was crazy - maybe I am, but Danish people are probably more used to these temperatures).

We went later to a Native Bird Sanctuary, which is a "hospital" for injured birds, and we got to see AND TOUCH a kiwi and a hawk. This guy is the only person in whole of NZ who has permission to touch a kiwi, and he let us all have a go. It was pretty funny; the fur is like hair and not feather like usually on birds. There were a Tui bird as well, which is a bird that can imitate sounds, and this fellow could actually talk. He would repeat sentences like "Come here", "Good boy" etc in exactly the same voice as the guy (so yes, the bird talked with a strong NZ-dialect)! It was hilarious, and we all laughed.

After our little birdie-experience, we headed on to Paihia, the city in the Bay of Islands, which consist of 144 islands, and we checked-in in the pre-booked hostel (= that is just the best thing with this way of travelling - the bus driver sends a sheet around in the bus with hostel-options, and everyone writes down where they would like to stay. Then he makes all the bookings and drops us off outside the respective hostels upon arrival - It is so easy!)

Mostly all of us stayed in the same, and we went shopping, cooked together and went rather early to bed.

Next morning most of us had our Day-trip up to Cape Reinga, and we got again picked up by the Dune-rider bus at 7am, drove out of the city direction north. It is funny how the landscape changes after just a few kilometres. We can pass areas with green hills amongst hills, forestry mountainsides with pine-trees, flat grassy fields with thousands of sheep, stunning bays or rocky coastlines, all within a couple of hours. I never get tired of looking out of the window, since one view is more spectacular as the one right behind the corner. The roads here are very small, up and down, turns upon turns, and sometimes quite dangerous. Not only once did we cross a one-way bridge, which actually is used for both directions, but luckily there are very few cars on the roads as well. In general I have the feeling that not many people live in this country: all the houses are rather small and very widely apart. The amounts of sheep are not small though, and I have already now seen hundreds of cute little lambs!

I also noticed some piglets as we drove along in the countryside: it reminded me of Denmark. But we also passed some quite weird stuff, like a bicycle-fence and a wellyboot-fence. People must be bored sometimes since they can be bothered to decorate a fence with old bikes or hang up heaps of gumboots?? I mean, in Australia I once passed a high-way barrier with faces painted on, picturing the children from the surrounding villages, and it was very beautiful and unique, but this??

We stopped at a few viewpoints along the way, and since the weather was absolutely great, I really enjoyed the scenery! We passed vineyards (it is apparently a great wine-making country), avocado- and kiwi-orchards and fields with water-and rock-melon, things I have never really seen "naturally growing" before (they just come from the supermarket, right?:)!

Our first major stop was Gumdiggers Park. Here we joined a quite interesting tour around the park. It was tea-tree trees, and they dig after gum from there - a sort of soft stone they can melt and produce Wellington boots from, and if it hardened it becomes amber-stone. As they were digging, they had found an underground forest, a forest existing some meters under the normal forest-level, covered by sandstone. The theory is that once there has been a forest there, and then a tsunami (water) has covered it and made a layer of sandstone, where a new forest had started to grow (the forest visible now a days). It was quite interesting to see all the old roots and plants they have found there, just by digging!

Afterwards we drove up to the most northern point of NZ, Cape Reinga, with the lighthouse. We walked out there and enjoyed the beautiful views. On this cape the two oceans of NZ meet: The Tasman Sea and the South Pacific Ocean. It was amazing to watch the waves breaking into each other, and the sand whirled up by the strong currents.

The highlight of the day came next. We drove south again, to very huge sand dunes on the west coast. There we got a sand-board each and started running up the big dunes, before excitingly (okay, to be honest: the first time quite shaking and scared looking down the steep hill of sand) jumping onto the board, holding on nice and tight, enjoying the fast ride down the hill. It was just like in winter with the snow, except for the fact that it is 10 times harder to climb up soft sand that keeps disappearing under the feet than snow; it just seems that you get no-where! We, which was now reduced to only the most hard-core people one the bus, climbed up a few times and wow, it was just SO MUCH FUN!!!

Well, after this little energy-boost we drove onwards, southbound to the Ninety Mile Beach. As the name indicates, a long beach where you can drive when the tide is low (it is even classified as a public road in NZ). I was again the only Viking, jumped into my swimmers and went for a little "try to resist the strength of the waves" - it was way too strong currents to really go out there. But the beach was beautiful, looked a lot like Ballina Beach, and we drove quite a long time in the sand. The last stop, before heading home, was a wood-shop, where the workers make things out of very old Kauri-wood. There were some quite interesting and seriously expensive stuff, but well, it was just for the look of it, right!

Back in Paihia in the evening, I fell asleep really quickly: I was so tired! But it had been a very nice day.

Today, Saturday, I have done some washing, talked with the others over some hours "morning tea", and wait now for the clock to be 4pm, when I go down to the harbour and join an overnight cruise on a boat. It will be hopefully worth the money! Tomorrow I will head back to Auckland in the evening, stay overnight in the hostel and begin my Magic-bus journey south!