Hi Everyone,

We've been in New Zealand now for nearly two weeks and have already had an amazing time so far.

We flew in to Auckland and spent a few days there in a really nice hostel. We decided to do a tour of the north island with the Stray bus after speaking to others who had done it and recommended it. Whilst in Auckland Tim got his beard trimmed, which i was glad about as it was starting to grow around his lips into his mouth!! Of course we did the touristy things too; we went over to Devonport which was a quaint harbour town, mount Eden an extinct volcano and walked around the city.

Day 1 of our tour from Auckland took us to Hot Water beach, where you dig holes in the sand and they fill up with really hot water, it's like taking a really hot bath! For most of us it was the first bath we had had in months! We then went for a walk along the coast to Cathedral cove. That evening we stayed in Hahai and our driver/guide cooked a massive BBQ with all the trimmings!

 Day 2 we headed for Raglan and stopped to hug a tree on the way - it's a Maori thing! At Raglan Tim and I hired surf boards and had a cool couple of hours surfing, the weather was beautiful, the sun shone down on us and the surf was just right (well for the 1st couple of hours, until the tide went out and the waves got too big!). The view of the beach from the water was beautiful too, we actually thought it was better surf than Oz. That evening we had a fantastic mexican meal cooked by the hostel staff and then headed to a leaving party in the barn for one of the hostel workers.

Day 3 took us to Waitomo caves where Tim did the Haggas Honkin Holes, which involved abseiling down caves and crawling through small holes underground. I went through a cave on a dinghy in the pitch black and looked at millions of glow worms, it was really cool, quite magical (the glow worm cave has been filmed by David Attenborough!). That evening we went to Rotorua where there are lots of hot springs which makes the area stink of rotten eggs because of the sulphur.

Day 4 - Addrenalin packed day! We started out with a spot of White Water Rafting involving a drop down a 7 metre waterfall, although not quite so high as our next activity! In the afternoon we decided (as you do!) to do some skydiving! Tim from 15,000 ft and me from 12,000 ft. The decision for me wasn't as easy as it was for Tim, one minute i was doing it then i'd change my mind and chicken out. By the time we got to the skydive centre most people had made up there minds and i decided i would go for it. A couple of us girls were quite nervous so we all stuck together. In the plane my legs were shaking like mad, but it came to the plunge and you don't get much say in the matter as the man your attached to just goes for it. After the intial freefall where you are rolling around upside down in the air it was actually really cool and when the parachute is up the view we had over lake Taupo was amazing! That evening everyone was extremely high so we all went out for a meal, although after the meal the excitment hit us all and everyone was completely shattered.

Day 5, we headed to The Tongariro National park (with everyone who did the skydive proudly sporting their 'Skydive Taupo' T.Shirts!). we arrived at the nicest hostel which had log burning fires and as the weather had been too bad to do the Tongariro crossing most of us chilled, caught up on laundry and in the evening had a massive feast! Our driver cooked us a HUGE roast dinner with ALL the trimmings - it was sooo nice! It was one of the group members birthday too. That night we also took advantage of the free hot tub.

Myself, Tim and 2 other girls from the group decided to stay in the hostel for a day to wait the weather out to do the Tongariro crossing and the rest of the group we had to say goodbye to as they made their way south. 

The wait was worth it as we had an amazing clear day for the crossing (which is rated as being in the top 5 walks in the world!). The walk took us past "Mount Doom", red craters and Emerald lakes. Seven hours later and a few achy bones and sore feet we jumped into the hot tub again. 

we have since been in Wellington the last few days, catching up on sleep and doing some touristy things including the botantic garden which we took the red cable car up to (as in the photo on this page) and have been to the museum.

We're looking forward to getting our campervan tomorrow and heading to the south island and getting back in to the country and doing some more walks etc. Today we bought our thermals (nice!) in preparation for some cold weather.

Sorry if this has been a bit of a long one, but we're having such a good time and i feel i have to tell you everything!! ;-)

Lots of love,

 Emili and Tim XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX