Arriving in New Zealand was refreshing,but cold! It was lovely crisp air that was bearable, although upon arriving in Auckland i automatically went shopping for some thermals! I spent a couple of nights in Auckland, which is built on about 80volcanoes! I took a harbour cruise over to a nearly extinct volcanic island, the current residents have 50year leases and once thats up no one is allowed to live there. I also went up the sky tower for sunset and could see all over the city and the harbour.

I went North up to Paihia (entrance to the bay of islands) in search for Kauri trees! They are huuuuge and the biggest and oldest one approx 1800yrs has a girth of about 16metres! Unfortunately on my walk i found none,but it was a lovely place anyway. I also fell ill here so spent a whole day watching films,luckily it was raining anyway!

I headed back to Auckland to meet Anna and Elin who were stopping by for just 2 nights, we had lunch,shopped,do what girls do best. Then spent the evening in a local bar, i was really sick so no drinking for me but we had lots of fun. The next time i will see them will be in Sweden.

I left the girls to go to Whakatane where i stayed in a lovely,clean,homely hostel and i was the only guest! Here i took a boat trip and visited New Zealands only active marine volcano. We had to wear hard hats and gas masks because it could explode at any moment. The landscape of it was forever changing and new craters were forming daily. It is soo steamy there and is a very strong smell of Sulphur,very eggy. Boiling hot mud pools and a huge green crater lake that is -2 on the PH scale! There used to be a mine on the Island, the remants of it still remain and the miners used to live there but due to an explosion that killed every member but one it was shut down. It is being monitored every day and you can keep an eye on its activity at www.whiteisland.co.nz

Rotorua was my next stop, another thermal area. The whole town smelt of it egg, but after a while you got used to it. Here i visited a local park where a lot of it was fenced off, and coming from these areas were plumes of steam and even worse smells. New areas where opening up all around and there were some puddles on the ground that i stuck my finger in and it was hot. Its a bit scarey ti think whats happening just below your feet. The picture up top is one of the thermal mud pools. It was here i met Nina,someone i have known all my life(havent seen in 10years) but we happened to be in Rotorua at the same time. Purely by chance our parents bumped into each other in the butcher and thats when we found out we were in the same place! We explored(got lost) the area in her camper and went on a thrilling Agrojet ride, which is a reeally speedy boat that throws u round corners, which was fun. Then i went to stay at the home she was staying at and watched movies and ate pizza, it was nice to have some normality.

It was a lovely coach journey down to Taupo, all the way i caught glimpses of snow capped cones and then when we got to Taupo got a full view of them. They are three volcanoes, one of which was Mount Doom in LOTRs. It was stunning. Taupo is the largest lake in New Zealand and has an extince volcano underneath it. 2hours after arriving here i jumped out a plane! My first and i think only skydive was pretty surreal. You get strapped onto the front of the instructor(felt a bit like mini me in Austin powers goldmember) and then he throws us out and at first you are tumbling in the air and then you freefall on your front. It was from 15,000ft and ive got it on DVD and photos,although i dont think the dvd is going to be made public. It was very off putting having a camera in your face when you look like a chipmunk and all you can think is that your teeth are freezing! But the scenery was spectacular and im really glad i did it,although the scariest thing ever.

My last destination in the North was Wellington (Wellywood) which is the capital. A lovely little city with a cable car that takes you up to the botanic gardens where you get a view of the whole city whilst walking through lovely plants and a rose garden. The sun was shining, i was in a beautiful place and it was so peaceful up the there.I visited Te Papa, New Zealands version of the Natural History Museum and its free. Its huge and houses THE Collossal squid. It also talks about NZs thermal activity and has an earthquake simulator. I went back there again the next day! To get to the South Island i had to get a ferry that took 3hrs, but it was lovely,sunny and a smooth ride. A whale was spotted but i didnt get to see it. After 12days the North Island was complete. The reason for my rushing,although i did everything i wanted, is because i have got a ticket to see the All Blacks play France in Dunedin on 13th June so ive got a schedule to keep. South Island here i come!