Kiora!! (that's hello in Mauri)

So our first night out was a laugh I was very very drunk SHOCK!! The second noght out we watched the Rugby Australia vs New Zealand it was busy to say the least!!!

On Sunday Julia had promised us a roast dinner but she was hung over and couldn't be bothered to cook but here you can get take away roast dinners which are lush!!! it cost $13 which is about 4quid and we got half a chicken, stuffing, potatoe, pumpkin, some root thing which was nice, peas and carrots it was enough for 2 dinners!!!

Monday we just drove into Auckland and checked the city out, it's like most town although there are alot of ads for plastic surgery and stuff that I've noticed. oh and apparently there all JAFA's which stands for Just Another f***ing Aucklander I think there all ok though!!

Tuesday we just drove up to One Tree Hill (there is no tree!!! someone cut it down afew years ago and the city were outraged the council asked if everyone would like them to put another one up and they said yes one tree hill with no tree is just stupid but they haven't done it governments eh!!) It is beautiful up there you get a great view of the city and the country side (Uncle Jimmy would love it here!!) oh and there are loads of sheep.

Wednesday we drove to Piha on the West Coast and saw Lion Rock which is supposed to look like a Lion I couldn't see it but it was a really horrible day when we went very windy and black skies. We went to one of Julias friends houses that night for a party there were lots of kids running riot it was abit mental I ate blue cod (yes I ate fish!!) it was yummy. They did fireworks but it was insane people were lighting them upside down and they were going off all over the place so someone called it off prob the best idea. Oh I tried this Strawberry flavoured champagne it's amazing you all have to try it!!!

Thursday we were far to hungover to do anything so we sat around all day. This is the problem when you have a nice house to sit around in hostels kinda drive you out into the world and nice comfy sofa is far to inviting!!

Friday ROAD TRIP!!! Julia took a day off so we could all go away for the weekend. We drove to Waitomo Caves where you can go inside the caves and see all the gloworms, it really is amazing how much light they give off, its very pretty. Then we headed to Taupo, the lake here is massive and apprently wicked for wakeboarding which I'm dying to have ago at. We got to Huka Falls (pronounced Hooker falls everything here is pronounced differently!!) and we just the Hukafalls jetboat ride, WOW this was wicked!! You get driven down this rivers bearly missing the walls by cm, the boat can also do 360 turns it was sooooo sunny we just laughed the whole way through it!! (oh it stinks here too the sulphur here makes everything smell plus you have all the thermal pools cause it's volanic so the water is all really warm to like a luke warm bath!!)

We headed for our hostel after that, which wasn't to bad as there was 3 of us we had a room to ourselves which was good but Julia was talking in her sleep and one of them was farting loads so I didn't get alot of sleep!!!! I nearly forgot we went to a pub that night and it was anything but clothes night so Paul was playing pool with a man wearing a carpet!! very odd indeed!!

Sat morning, we got up early and headed to the Thermal Walk. You have little boat ride over to this steaming bit of land, yes it really smells here. You follow a map and it take you round formed rocks, Sulphur pools, bubbling mud pools, Geysers and a cave. They say it takes 1.5 hours to walk round we did it in 45 mins!!! Anyhoo we had to get to our next destination!!

Tauranga, this place is full of little bits and pieces to do. We started with the gondela ride which is actually like a sky cart thing taking us to the top of this hill/mountain we paid $50 for the gondela ride, 1 go on the sky swing, 2 luge rides!! we did the sky swing first OMG!! thought I was going to die!! since the skydive I've actually developed a dibilitating fear of hights!! ok there are 2 strutureseither side of usandone behond, we get strapped in and the cable starts to pull us up towards the stucture behind us we're facing out over the edge of the mountain, I totally started freaking out!!! we get to the top, there was lots of arguing who's fault it was that we were on this darn ride!! Pauls!! when you get to the top the lady waves at you and you have to pull the cord yourself!!! Lucky Paul had it I'd have been stuck up there all day!! We dropped soooo fast then swing out over the edge it's sooo scary then it's just a swing to it wasn't to bad. Paul has the DVD we'll try and upload it try not to laugh at me to much please. OK so adrenaline rush over!! We headed for the luges, these are soooo much fun, it's just a little cart you steer it, pull down on the handles to break and less pressure to go faster soo much fun.

Ok so we'd had enough on top of the mountain we had our gondela ride back down then headed to the ZORB!!!! this was hilarious you have to do it, all 3 of us went in one with a load of water too then we rolled down a hill. You wouldn't think it could be that funny but it sooo was, I was well chuffed too they used warm water!!!

We moved on back into town and went to the Polynesian Spa, hot pools lots of different ones good for your skin and bones and muscles!! we got abit bored in here though we thought there was a mud pool too. We dove to our next hostel only for Julia to realise she has lost her wallet!!! ARGH so we went back to the Spa and it was there. Second attempt we checked in eventually and got into our room. We have a heard of baby elephants above us and some kids having a party in the room out theback of ours. I was fast asleep but apparently they were keeping everyoneelse up so I was woken by Julia effing and jeffing in the room banging walls and screaming at people, I was not happy!!! Paul went with her as back up to scarem at some kids I went back to sleep god knows what happened after that.

Sunday we stopped at Mount Maunganui which is very touristy we didn't stay long. We headed straight back to Auckland. When we got back Julia went to bed and we went into town, we watched the boxing and got a little bit tipsy.

And today is Monday so we thought we'd update you on the latest, Paul is currently checking flights to Wellington then the Ferry to Picton, somewhere to stay in Picton and then the train to Queenstown, so this is hard work you know I don't want you lot thinking this is easy going travelling round the world just checking things out!! tee hee we know you all wish you were here!!! Well you'll all be please to know our tans have faded (there is no ozone over here appraently so you just burn but for some reason tans go really quickly!!!) and as we head south it's going to get colder!! but only 2 weeks and we'll be in hot hot hot australia!!! ha ha

Love to all, Peace out!! oh Haere ra (Goodbye in Mauri) we say it like when you sing that song ladadee dadeda

M & P x x x x x x x