Hello folks. Back again, as this is our first rainy day since starting the Kiwi Experience bus tour in New Zealand. Its also the first free day we've had; every other day its been setting an alarm to make sure the bus doesnt leave without us, despairing at how messy our rucksacks have gotten in just a few hours and frantically stuffing everything back in again!

This blog is for our first week on the Kiwi Experience bus. We also had 4 days ish in both Santiago and Auckland but my old brain has forgotton a lot of the details about that so I will go back and fill in the gap once ive done a bit of head scratching. I especially want to do abit of a conclusion about my experience of South America..

Right now I am in Taupo which is a township on the side of a lake the size of Singapore! Wowzer! We were woken up by a loudspeaker as today is the 10th year that Taupo will be hosting the Iron Man competition which is one of those swim, run, cycle ridiculous distances events, best left to the INSANE. Further proved by the fact that it has chucked it down with rain all morning. Poor unfortunate fools. Such a shame because the weather up until now has been LOVELY. I feel so lucky as it makes it so much more enjoyable seeing all the wonderful scenery in the sun and finishing activities and being able to dry off and not just stay soaking wet for the remainder of the day!

DAY 1; AUCKLAND TO PAIHIA (BAY OF ISLANDS) We set of from Auckland where the weather had been gross and rainy and almost as soon as we were out of the city the weather instantly improved. Tells you something.. First stop was a lovely one; a cafe centred around bee keeping so a lot of the things on offer had honey in them and they sold some lovely honey products like handcream. I had a really nice pineapple toastie and thought coooool the food here is gonna be gooood.

We arrived at the Bay of Islands and checked into the Pipi Patch Hostel. There was a nice cafe next door and we had a spot of lunch and then whiled away the afternoon reading some magazines (glossy magazines, I have concluded, are rubbish. They just make you feel bad that you havnt spent 200 pounds that month on new make up and clothes. Best avoided I think!). The bay was really lovely and the sun was shining so I decided to take a bike out. Dont think Ive ridden a bike since I was a child and I was a bit scared at first out on the roads. The drivers were really considerate tho (would you catch that in London - I think not) and I really enjoyed it so I wont think twice about hiring a bike to explore a place in future :) Especially a beautiful coast. WBeth and I then relaxed on the beach for a while and then we ended the day with a BBQ at the hostel and chilling out watching some Grays Anatomy in the hotels lounge.

DAY 2 PAIHIA TO AUCKLAND Beth and I had signed up with a company called Awesome Adventures NZ to do a swimming with dolphins tour. I think the tour was really well done because almost immediately the guides found a pod of dolphins who came right up to the boat to check us out and wowed us with their jumps, showing off to the crowds. Closest Ive ever been to wild dolphins I think. The next thing we knew wed been given snorkels and fins and we were sitting on the end of the boat (minus wetsuits - too cumbersome apparently!) ready to jump in with the dolphins. And it was bloody cold!! 3 times we jumped from the boat into the sea and swam frantically towards the dolphins with the guides on the boat shouting directions. But the dolphins were more interested in eachother than in us so I didnt really get to swim with them. Probably for the best actually because even something as lovely as a dolphin mightve seemed VERY SCARY while I was thrashing about in the ocean if it had come right up to me. It was very cool tho, the guides knew all the dolphins names etc. I then wnt and sat at the front of the boat with two really friendly ladies one of whom said to me, um do you want a sweater, your lips are blue!! I turned her down the first time but she insisted because apparantley I was getting bluer! Funny because I dont ever remember that happening before. The boat dropped us off at an island to spend the afternoon and despite cupping a mug of hot chocolate I still wasnt able to feel the ends of my fingers for about another hour!! Mustve been very cold! Luckily the sun was shining so we sunbathed and got warm again, and had a very relaxing afternoon before grabbing an ice cream and taking a ferry back to the mainland.

The bus then took us back to Auckland where we stayed at ACB (Auckland Cental Backbackers) which was a massive hostel, the type you could get lost in. After an exhasperatingly long wait to check in and the most unenjoyable shower (the kind that you have to press a button every minute to keep it going), and stooping to a new low of eating at mcdonalds because it was late and everything was closed, we finally zonked out.