After spending the week in Tairua we got back on the kiwi bus and headed off to Mercury bay, was ok there although we didn’t actually do a lot since we only spent one night there! The next morning we went to hot water beach, which was really cool, there are thermal outlets under the sand and you can dig a hole in the sand and it will fill with boiling water!! Our next stop was Rotorua, which was one of my favourite places, we spent a couple of nights there ...

From Auckland we headed south stopping in Tairua where Chris’ family have got their holiday home, we stayed there for a week just slouching out basically, sleeping in and recharging our batteries, we also made full use of an oven and also a bath, along with the fact it was free accommodation. Si and Steve attempted to surf, apparently with not much success and we invented the best sport ever – dual extreme indoor Frisbee!!

After seeing the Bay of Islands we went back to Auckland where we stayed with Chris’ cousin Sam at his flat for the weekend for his 21st birthday party! We only spend the weekend at Sam’s house for his party and also had a night out in Auckland!

From Auckland we got on the Kiwi bus and headed right to the very North of New Zealand, the Bay of Islands, we spent a couple of nights in the Bay of Islands, going on a dolphin sight seeing cruise, there was the possibility of swimming with them but unfortunately they had babies in their pod so we weren’t allowed!! We also went on the excitor boat out to the hole in the rock and also got to do some sea kayaking around the islands ion the bay, was an amazin...

Fresh off our 4am flight from Fiji we arrived at Auckland airport, as soon as we stepped out the change in climate hit us! We were cold! Even though it had rained pretty much every day of our two weeks in Fiji we were never cold! Felt like England!! We got the bus into Auckland and checked into our hostel, we spent most of our time in Auckland catching up on sleep and doing some shopping, we did a day trip around Auckland and got to climb the harbour bridge and s...