We went to a great Maori cultural night which was far from the gimmick I expected it to be.Reuben was appointed chief of our group (ok, he volunteered, egged on by me) - which meant that when we entered the village, he had to make a speech to the Maori chiefletting him know we came in peace.It was bloody intimidating actually, they arrived by torch lit canoe and demonstrated some of their warrior moves in their native dress and tattoos, and stared Reuben down.A...

What a great week this has been so far, its only been 9 days and i'm firmly in love with this country. We spent 4 days exploring Auckland which is such a nice city, it seems a shame to call it a city at all! Tons of green spaces, everything is clean, and people are SO friendly. I got to see 2 of the peeps i met when travelling last year and they showed us a seriously good time, sampling the local beer and wines with us. So great to see them, love it when you ca...