2.15am my alarm went off on the morning of Tuesday 20th April, had been sleeping on and off and was very tired but had to drag ourselves out of bed and be ready to leave at 2.30am. Sure enough 2.30am we checked out and halied a cab, the lovely taxi driver agreed to take us all the way to the airport for less than it would cost us to get the shuttle from the train station, although this meant that we arrive an hour early at the airport, it also meant a lot less hassle for us! So just before 3am Katie and I found ourselves sitting and waiting for check-in to open at Melbourne airport. Once checked in at 4am, we headed through to departures, wandered around, went on the internet for 20mins and got ourselves some breakfast before heading to the gate.

One 3hour 30 minute flight later, during which we both slept, and we had arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, ready to start part two of our adventures. The Airbus express shuttle was easy enough to find, so after buying my NZ Sim from vodafone we got on the bus which was to drop us right outside our hostel, Base ACB. After checking into our Sanctuary room, (girls only, with towels, shampoo, conditioner and soap) it felt like a little luxury for us, that and the fact that there was only us and one other girl in a 6 bed dorm. We spent the afternoon visiting the supermarket and having a look around before finding a traditional Irish pub for the most amazing dinner, I am not ashamed to admit that i had Beef and Guiness Pie with mash, peas and gravy and it was absolutely awesome, just what i needed. However, it was after eating dinner that we realised just how tired we were from such an early start and so we had an early night.

Finally we got a lay-in, our first one in what felt like forever, and it was sooooooo lovely! We got up in our own time and showered, got ready and had breakfast and then went out in Auckland. We went to the Skytower first which had awesome views. its the highest building in the southern hemisphere and both the lift and the observation deck have glass floors in places so that you literally stand hundreds of metres above the ground with nothing below! It was pretty scary and i choose not to stand on the glass whilst Katie did so, but very gingerly!lol! We sat and had a very sophisticated coffee and cake (well Katie had Latte and cake and i just had a Hot Chocolate) in the cafe at the top, and then we headed back down again. The afternoon was spent wandering around the shops picking up a few bargains. At 6pm we were booked into Minus 5, which is Melbourne's ice bar and was the first ice bar to open in the world. It was amazing, smaller than i expected but still very cool with the different sculptures and being given our cocktail in an ice glass etc! Awesome, although despite having a massive coat and gloves on we were both still freezing!lol! On the way home we found a place called Habitual Fix which sells absolutely amazing salads, so we picked up a fresh caesar salad, had a good chat with the guys running it and then took it back to the hostel to have for dinner along with some savoury rice.........mmmmmm yummy! Another early night was had to be up and ready to start our Kiwi Experience at 7.10am the next morning!