The bus journey from Auckland to Paihia took 3 /4 hours but it was worth it as we were staying there for 3 nights. Paihia is almost right at the top of the north island and is gorgeous. We stayed at such a nice hostel called Salty Lodge and I would recommend it to anyone. The weather over the 4 days, 3 nights was a bit hit and piss (that was a typo but found it amusing) and on our first day walking back from the supermarket were got drenched...i mean wet knickers and bra soaked, the lady at reception laughed at the sight of 2 bedraggled rats with mascara running down their faces! It was the best hostel to stay in if it was raining as they had the best/biggest/most fab selection of Videos (stuck in 1987 with the VHS thing but I was very grateful) I watched so many films and laura forced me to watch a few films that she felt that I should have seen. We went out to the local bar with some girls from the bus and met up with the boys Dave and Ferg too.

When the weather was nice we went bike riding and sea kayaking....which had become one of my fave things to do. Neither of us capsized but when we got out of the sea we decided to have a full blown water fight...this is NZ in the winter and the water was not exactly warm....we both drowned eachother and waddled back to the hostel in full on soaking clothes.....2nd time in a couple of days... Once again the receptionest found it hilarious but was worried we had an accident. Bless her. There were some lovely sunsets and the sky looked gorgeous...I'm going to miss all the colours of the sky out here, its so amazing. So pinky and reds and blues and wispy grey bits....ahhhhhh so chilled out.

We got the bus back to Auckland, the boys were also coming back on the same day. We shared a room with the girls we had met but they left the next day. Laura also left a couple of days later to go to Singapore but I am meeting her in Bangkok in a couple of weeks so we can travel South East Asia together...so excited! Off to Fiji next and I cannot wait to get a bit of sunshine.....