Most people get the 3 hour ferry from the north to the south island. However we got a bargain flight with our YHA membership which was cheaper and only took 25mins. We were on a little plane with 10 seats got a bit of a fright as we came into land, as we hit an air pocket and dropped suddenly. We then got our next hire car, which once again was a lovely old banger. We set off and got all of 5 mins down the road when lots of banging came from underneath. We turned...

On Sunday we drove to Napier, which is a lovely small town on the east coast. It is famous for its art deco buildings, due to it having been rebuilt after an earthquake in 1930. On the way there we stopped off at Huka falls, which werent very high, however lots of white water and a gorgeous blue river. On Monday we drove to Wellington through mainly countryside, lots of sheep. Wellington is the nicest place we have visited so far in New Zealand. Its in a ni...

On Saturday we spent the morning at a thermal reserve. Here we got to see lots of bubbling mud, which we found amusing especially the noises, blup blup. Also lots of steam escaping from the ground which wasnt as pleasant as it stinks of sulphur(rotten eggs). There was also a huge geyser as shown on the picture, and this is where boiling water spurts out of the ground. We also got to see a traditional Maori show, lots of funny shouting and sticking out of tongues,...

Last night we went on a very scary walk in search of glow worms. It took us through the jungle like forest in the pitch black with a tiny torch to guide us. We were on our own and we didnt know where we were going. Craigs arm is still sore today from me holding on to it so tightly. Luckily we managed to spot several lots of glow worms along the side of the river. It was bizarre seeing them glowing up, like little blue LED lights. Thankfully we made it back alive ...

Last night we went to minus 5 bar in auckland, which is a bar completley made out of ice, even the glasses. It was literally quite cool, we both came out with red noses. It had lots of cool ice sculptures, and a cool bar again made of ice, stocked up with bottles of vodka. We also had a walk on the harbourfront, where we were surprised to see another famous icon to add to our list, the QE2. It was docked up in the harbour, it is huge. So lots of people walking ro...