I HAVE HAD A STARBUCKS, I REPEAT, I HAVE HAD A STARBUCKS....in fact I have had several starbucks, cream cakes and icecreams and now have an arse the size of a small country. Arrival in Auckland was bloody brilliant. Civilisation at last. After 20 child sick free hours in the air from Easter Island to Santiago and finally New Zealand (my 21st flight) I was lucky enough to have been booked into a posh hotel courtesy of my wonderful parents! Well, amazing is all I will say. A gym! A gym I tell you, I had died and gone to heaven. Arriving at 5am I booked in, made a couple of phone calls and then asked reception if I couild drink the water in New Zealand. The reception guy looked at me like I was a total stinking, deshevelled mentalist! 'deerrrrr, yeah' he said in his kiwi accent. Suddenly I realised it wasnt going to be quite as acceptable to be a 'total nob head' in NZ as it had been in South America. I decided not to go down the route of asking if I could put loo paper in the lav at this stage and instead, quit while i was ahead and go to my room to enjoy one of my 2 double beds and massive bath and a TV!!!! I was so excited to watch the news.....sad I know. As I wondered the streets of Auckland I felt all warm and fuzzy inside, like I'd come home or something. I felt safe, relaxed, confident because I had no language barriers and utterly spoilt because of all the fab shopping. I wondered for 2 days with a perminant smile on my face. And when I booked into a clean, safe hostel I was beside myself with excitement (again!). Clean, secure showers and rooms, large, clean cooking facilities, power sockets!! TV and Movie room as well as massive internet place and travel information station. Unbelievable and such a far cry from everything that I had grown used to. I had to consciously try to stop talking pigeon spanish and using my unique sign language. Upon my travels I stumbled across a gym (I swear I stumbled, I didn't search it out as some of you may think) and guess what, they had a spinning class going on. Brilliant, so I booked in straight away. At 12.15 the following day I arrived ready for my 1st real exercise in 7 weeks and I knew it would kill me. I just hoped I wouldn't do a Bridget Jones and fall off the bike or something. The class began and I was loving it, in a sick sort of way, as only i can. The teacher however, had to give up her bike because the class was full and it was a massive group of about 40 people. This meant the techniques she was trying to teach couldn't be demonstrated. Anyway, I didnt care. So here I am, head down, out the seat, resistence on, running on the pedals (hearing Sarah shout 'power down' in my mind), sweating like a football team about to get knocked out of the world cup. Bearing in mind I am in my 'travelling gym kit' I look a total pikey OK, my usual gym shorts, some tatty cotton t-shirt and my lush Inca Trail, peed on, North Face trainers which are doing the tango on their own these days. Thinking to myself 'Pedal Amy, pedal like the wind, listen to the music, feel the burn, head down, keep the sweat out your eyes...' When I hear the instructor shout 'everyone stop except YOU' I look up and she is pointing straight at me! My face is radish red and my hair is stuck to my head, I don't even have proper gym kit on and I'm puffing like a train and the whole class are stopped and staring at me'! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, I'm thinking, what now? The instructor quickly makes her way over to my bike and shouts 'everyone, this is how you ride a spinning bike, perfect technique, everyone follow this lady'. Of course I grinned and immediatly thought that Lou and Sarah from the Nationwide spinning class would be proud of me! I might have looked like an unfit, scanky traveller with an arse the size of a small country but I can still ride a spinning bike! ha ha Anyway, that night in the hostel an English lady of 48 and her 2 foreign students arrived in my dorm. We chatted and she gave me the low down on where and where not to go on my visit to the country. She also gave me her number and told me to call if I was passing Tauranga. Which is exactly what I did. Turns out she runs a home stay business for people from Korea and Japan, she teaches them English and takes them around all the activites. Well it seems she is now running a homestay place for 30 something, quirky types from Swindon. She invited me to her house for the week and has allowed me to join in on all the activites that she's taken her students on. All this for free..... in my mind I could hear my mothers voice saying 'don't completely trust anyone Amy' and I must admit, the deal seemed too good to be true. The house is lovely but there is a lot of 'god' reference in it, like 'devotion to the lord' posters in the bathroom, crosses everywhere and even an organ (of the musical type, not from a body or anything)...in the living room. OK then.... a flash of me being kidnapped and brainwashed into a religious cult ran through my mind. I had visions or the next time I see you guys I would be stood outside the Savoy in robes, waving a bean bag around my head, which had a number one razor cut all over...... Quickly, I dispelled those thoughts and proceeded with caution. Any fears were soon quashed however when i got to know Jill more for her famous sayings 'oh my god and s*** a brick' in a Dudly style accent. Its got to be all good..... So far this week I have climbed a mountain (as you do), been to the hot water springs and bathed (it was 'too ott' man and had to get out after 10 mins), been Black Water Rafting which was brilliant once I had peeled myself into the wet suit. Its the same as white water rafting but under ground in caves and in complete darkness, a real adrenalin buzz though. Yesterday I went grade 5 white water rafting which was incredible and makes the rafting I did in Argentina look like a boat trip in Lechlade. But before I tell you about that, I must tell you about the most sureal experience of my trip so far. We visited a rabbit shearing farm. OK, picture this, giant and I mean giant, white rabbit, front legs tied with string, back legs tied with string. Both ends of the string attached to wheels, so the bunny could periodically be turned as if it was about to be roasted. An elderly, evil looking woman stands in front of the bunny on a spit like contraption and clicks on her razor, clipper things and proceeds to shave this bunny bald, apart from his fluffy head. i am looking mainly with a frowned and partly terrified expression as she allows us to walk around the bunny and feel his furr now he has had a number one all over. The purpose, as far as I could tell, was to use the furr to make hats and scarfs etc. It was all most strange, have a look at the pictures. Perhaps its a New Zealand back country thing.... Anyway, back to the rafting. We took the raft over massive water falls and were given instructions on what to do when the raft flips and we're trapped underneath. OK....then..... I lost my breath once and actually paniced as I tried to catch it again but apart from a thumb that was very nearly broken, I came out unscathed, smiling and saying 'can we do it again, can we do it again?' It was excellent. Today, we went to Rotorua. I kid you not, it flipping stinks there. It is a place that is on a very thin part of the earths crust (only 3-6meters deep in some places) so there are spouts of gases errupting from the ground all over the place. Steam pools and bubbling mud pools. Within this area is a real Maori settlement where they live, cook and bathe in the hot water pools, which they actually have to cool with cold water, otherwise it would be scalding. It all sounds great except the whole place smells like a bumper pack of stink bombs have been let off by some little b******s from down the street, its vile. I walked around with a 'face on' turning my nose up often (as only I can). Tomorrow, Sat and Sun will be a sky dive in Taupo (weather permitting), a bungy jump in Taupo, which I always said I would never do but I now want to test myself to see if I have the balls to actually jump rather then be pushed) and a day snowboarding somewhere, all before heading to Wellington to hit the South Island. All in all, you could say I have landed on my feet totally, I am guest in someones lovely home, own room, hot water, all the junk food i can eat and loads of organised trips and activities with none of the headaches. My only effort is to try to communicate with Japanese and Korean people but I already have great sign language skills so thats no problem! ha ha I fit right in.... Naomi, thanks for your bungy jump advice by the way, which was 'mate, f*** the bungy jump, go to a winery instead' ha ha ha. I did the winery yesterday (and treated myself to a bottle which I drank last night - lovely thank you very much) so the jump is yet to come. How amusing is that going to be.....oh jesus! Thank you again for all your messages, text and emails, as always, I love hearing from you so keep them coming. Love from me xxx