We arrived in New Zealand safely, no thanks to a madman on the plane who opened the overhead lockers on landing - he was last seen being escorted from the airport by security! The first day was spent organising our trip for the next 5 weeks and having a general wander around the city. The weather wasn't as cold as we expected but anticipating the worst we both purchased thermal tops.

The great thing about Auckland was that we stayed with a brilliant couple called Matiu and Reagan who we first met in Ko Lanta in Thailand. We had a great few days with them driving to the coast, dining out at a local Japanese restaurant, eating a real home made Sunday roast and drinking in the stylish Ponsonby area of Auckland.

On one of the days we went on a one day free tour of Auckland which was good as our guide was a Mauri so he could tell us some of the older history of New Zealand. The British only arrived 150 years ago whilst the Mauris discovered the country in the 1300's. During the day we went for a walk on the Auckland bridge, drove up to Mount Eden a volcano which erupted 2000 years ago and visited Bastion Point. In the 1950's the local Mauri population were moved from their homes downtown, because the queen was visiting, and put out of the way at the top of the hill at Bastion Point. In 1977 it was suddenly realised that the settlement was on a prime piece of real estate, with wonderful views, and so the authorities decided that the community should move again but this time they retaliated and a 568 day protest ensued which resulted in 220 arrests and a death. The government eventually backed down, left the Mauris and have since made a formal apology for the incident.

On Tuesday 14th July we began our Stray trip around New Zealand - a hop on / hop off bus. The first leg of the trip took us from Auckland to Wellington and lasted 6 days. Here's the basic itinerary:-

Day 1 - Our first major stop was fantastic - Miranda hot springs, an open air pool of steaming water. This is where I first got to know Becky, Breda and Lora. We were having such a lovely time that Thumper, our guide, had to come and tell us to get out of the pool so we could actually carry on with the rest of the days activities! We then drove to our overnight stop, a place called Hahei, from where we walked to Cathedral Cove. The walk was lovely but it was raining again but even in miserable weather Cathedral Cove is quite magical so I can only imagine how beautiful it would be in the sunshine.

Day 2 - This was a bit of a low key day for me. David and Becky went surfing whilst I went with some of the other girls into Raglan where we hung out drinking coffee and shopping.

Day 3 - Today was seriously action packed. Our guide on this trip is a guy called Thumper so nicknamed because his mother is the proud owner of 'The Shearing Shed' a wondrous establishment that we were lucky enough to be taken to. The Shearing Shed makes it's money from rearing and shearing Angora rabbits - the whole process is hilarious but also slghtly horrific as it involves stringing the rabbit up and then turnng it on a spit to shear it - take a look at the album for the photographic evidence.

Following this completely random and surreal experience we headed to the Waitomo Caves for a spot of 'Tumu Tumu Tubing' (that's caving to you and me!). As has become commonplace on these travels we then had to change into yet another attractive outfit - caving wetsuit and accessories finished off with a pair of white wellies. The actual caving experience was such good fun - we walked through tunnels, waded through water, crawled through small tunnels, swam, tubed in the dark and let ourselves be carried by the current through pinball alley. We saw lots of stalagmites, stalactites and glow worms which glow because, as our guide so eloquently put it, they have shiny s..t to attract food.

After this excitement we jumped back on the bus for the drive across the Island to Maketu our cultural stop for the night. We stayed at a place called Uncle Boys a purpose built Mari (Mauri meeting house) designed to give us tourist groups a brief and watered down insight into Mauri customs. As David was the oldest male in the group he became our chief so when we entered the Mari one of the young Mauri guys did a ceremony where he approached David and lay down a leaf in front of him. David could then either step over the leaf, which would mean we all had to leave as we were now enemies, or he could pick the leaf up which would mean we were now part of the Mauri famliy. Naturally he picked the leaf up and we began the greeting session which involves saying 'Kia ora' Mauri for hello and rubbing our noses together. The emphasis on the whole evening was very much on participation so we were then split into 3 groups to learn a Mauri activity - the boys were taken away to learn the Haka, one group of girls went and learnt a traditional song and dance routine whilst the third group, the one I was in, learnt how to use the 'Te te toria' or sticks which involved banging and throwing the sticks at each other. The evening then came to an end with a communal pyjama party as we all slept on mattresses in the Mari.

Day 4 - Today we visited Rotorua and Lake Taupo. David and I were supposed to be doing a sky dive in Lake Taupo but unfortunately it was cancelled due to inclement weather so the day was pretty much spent sightseeing around the eggy smelling Rotorua with its geothermal activity and Taupo with its large lake. The highlight of the day was stopping at a hot and cold river for an open air dip - the fact that the day was not the best made stripping off and jumping into a hot river all the more special.

Day 5 - Once again the weather managed to spoil todays activity - we were supposed to be doing an 8 hour walk known as the Tongariro crossing but it was cancelled because of bad weather. Poor Thumper was now under pressure to come up with some alternative activity on such a bad day - in the end he came up with 3 options either we could go to our new hostel and stay there, we could go for a 3 hour walk around Tongariro National Park or we could go up onto Mount Ruapehu and go skiing or snow boarding. About 6 of us decided that we would go for the skiing option which turned out to be so so much fun. Both David and I have never skied before so we joined the beginners lesson along with 2 other girls from the bus. We learnt how to parallel ski, how to stop and how to control our speed. We were both on such a high after this session.

Day 6 - This was essentially a travel day to Wellington which culminated in an evening out at the hostel bar.