Kia Ora! After fiiiiinally landing in Aucklad at 3am, we were picked up from the airport by the lovely Corinne and Tim. They introduced us to their 4 lively dogs who were looking forward to an early morning walk, so we headed straight out to the west coast of New Zealand, to a beach called Muriwai. The west coast is more rugged than the east coast but still beautiful. We walked along the beach in the early morning sun and then went up into the forest (going slightly off track, but luckily still managed to find our way to a fab beach cafe where we had an absolutely amazing breakfast) Colette also satisfied her ever growing craving for banana milkshakes! New Zealand has been in a drought for the last 2 months, it was just typical that it finished the day after we arrived! After seeing the forecast we thought it would be nice to make the most of the last day of sun by sunbathing in the afternoon, this time on an east coast beach called Long Bay! We swam in the clear blue sea and sunbathed all afternoon before our tummies started rumbling again and we headed back. The next day the 4 of us drove to Rotarua, a popular tourist destination about 3 and a half hours south of Auckland, where we stayed for the next 2 nights. On the way to Rotarua we made Colette's day....we went to Hobbiton, the set where Bilbo's famous hobbit hole is in The Hobbit. She and Tim had a tour of the set where the guide told her which parts of the set were used in each way and the history of the area. Katie saved her money, having never seen the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings ,by waiting outside with Corinne and tucking into some delicious muffins, before we met up again to carry on our journey to Rotarua. The first thing we saw was what Rotarua is most famous for: geothermal activity. The smell of rotten egg hit us before we even saw the town! We went straight to a central park area where we saw bubbling mud and hot pools of water which send up clouds of steam. We then went to some hot pools at Waikite which we could swim in. It was lovely to do this in the evening as the clouds of steam provided the perfect setting and with the starry night sky the place seemed magical. We stayed until the pools closed then went back to the lovely lodge we were staying in. The next morning we were up bright and early to go to Wai-O-Tapu, a famous geothermal area. We did the 3K walk around and saw more bubbling mud, geothermal lakes, terraces and the famous champagne pool. We even saw a geyser go off! After our busy morning we went to an amazing cafe called Fat Dog for lunch. It had been highly recommended by Corinne and Tim and it definitely didn't disappoint! In the evening we had the highlight of the trip so far: we were Maoris for the evening at the Tamaki Maori Village! As soon as we got on the bus we were welcomed and got introduced to everyone else on the evening. We then chose a chief of our tribe to accept the peace offering made by the Maori people at the welcome ceremony we had when we arrived. We played games and learnt about Maori culture before enjoying a Maori performance with singing and dancing. The performance finished with a Haka before we went for our traditional Hangi meal (a meal cooked under hot stones beneath the ground). It was such a fun evening, the cherry on top was the sing song on the bus on the way back! The next day it was raining so we drove straight back to Auckland. It was St Patrick's Day so we couldn't resist popping into a central Irish Pub for a quick drink! We ended up staying all afternoon and were having such a good time we didn't feel the earthquake that happened when we were in there! It was a great way to spend a wet afternoon and we even got free t-shirts and hats to take back as souvenirs! The next day was slightly better weather so we decided to risk an outdoors activity, Auckland Zoo was a calling :) The risk paid off as it stayed dry and we practically had the place to ourselves as most people were in work or school. We had a lovely day there and almost got into a Power Rangers episode which they were filming over there! The only disappointment was not spotting any Kiwis after a long time of peering through the darkness of their home! We cheered up in the evening though when we went out for a goodbye meal with Corinne and Tim. Of course it was sad as we had such a lovely few days with them, we couldn't have had a better introduction to New Zealand, but now we are excited to head down south and see more of this beautiful country!