The first day of a new week we said goodbye to some of our group that were only going to be with us for seven day and made our way to Nelson, which is still on the South Island, for a couple of nights. We went through Kaikoura on the way through, and to Ohau Point where we spotted tons of seals in their natural habitat, they are so cute! We went through the Marlborough region which is famous for its wines and eventually made it to Nelson.

Our first full day in Nelson was taken up by the terrifying news that there had been an earthquake in Christchurch which had measured about 6.3. We'd all been in Christchurch less than 24 hours previously. Christchurch are still recovering from the last big one which was still giving them aftershocks. Apparently, this quake was meant to be an aftershock of the one that happened back in September. The place is now pretty much destroyed. We gathered as a group downstairs in the lounge to watch it unfold in silence. Everyone was shocked and felt for everyone affected. The spire of the Cathedral fell down, there were people trapped inside and other buildings had crumbled to the floor. We can't even begin to describe how fortunate we felt that we had left just in time, we were just so lucky, we truly feel for those that weren't so. Our tour guides spent a good few worrying moments making sure everyone they knew in Christchurch were ok, and they were, so too were the few people from our group that finished the tour in Christchurch, they had all got out of the area before it hit. We contacted home to let them know we were ok, we can't imagine what they would have thought if they heard it through the media before knowing we were ok.

After Nelson, we made our way to the North Island via a very rough ferry ride. We managed to keep ourselves occupied by playing games with Shannon and Jami, which as always was hilarious.
We made it to Wellington, the original home of Peter Jackson, and went to a viewing point where we had 360 views of New Zealands capital city. We had a free afternoon, so we went for a walk and vistited Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand.

Unfortunately, we only had that free afternoon in Wellington, it would have been nice to spend more time there, but this tour is pretty much non-stop in order to fit in a lot of sights. We headed to Rotoura to stay in a tradional Maori Marae. We travelled past a few 'active' volcanos; Mt Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe, which is a classic conical volcano, recognised as Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings. This region rests above the pacific ring of fire.

We went through a 'welcoming process' tonight in order to be able to stay at the Marae. The girls were lead into the Marae first, followed by the guys, then the girls sit at the back with the guys infront. In this culture, women are seen as extremely important (makes a change!). The elder sung a tradional song and spoke to us in Maori. We then had to sing a song as a group. When we had finished, we greeted the Marae elder one by one, by touching forhead and nose. This is to symbolise the sharing of thoughts and breath. After this process was complete, we were now able to stay in the Marae and are welcome back anytime.

Staying at the Marae was really good, and not as intimidating as we first thought. We find the culture really interesting, and we'd certainly like to learn more. We had a nice home cooked evening meal there and after, we played games and had a talk in the Marae with Jen and Sean, the couple in charge. The morning after, we continued with the theme and headed to Whakarewarewa Maori village and Thermal Reserve. It was amazing, the geothermal village is like nothing we've seen and hard to believe all the hot springs and activity sources are natural. They are able to cook all their meals in the water it is that hot!

The North and South Island are very different, the South we feel, although both are beautiful, just pushes ahead with the 'wow-factor' and amount of 'kodak moments'. The North Island feels on a much level grounding, and kind of more 'lived in'. But both are truly amazing.

We travelled along the Waikato river to Auckland, which is known as the 'City of Sails', it's also NZs largest city, even bigger than the capital city Wellington, and it feels like it. We dropped off some more people that were finishing the tour there and picked up some newbies, that would eventually be doing the same route we done, but in reverse. We stayed in the Bay of Islands for the next two nights in a seaside town of Paihia. The Bay of Islands consists of 144 islands, little bays and marina life and is very quaint and pretty. We ended the evening by having fish and chips on the beach, yummy, but not as good as home!

Our last full day in New Zealand ended back in Auckland and was also our last day of the tour. It was really sad. We had such an amazing time in New Zealand, we're completely in love with the country.
We met Shannon and Jami for drinks and dinner, it was our last night with our two American friends, and was hard to say goodbye, even though we're going to be meeting up in their home of California when we reach there.

We enjoyed New Zealand so much. From the moment we arrived, we knew we would like it. Being on the Topdeck Tour with a great bunch of people really helped to make it even more special. The disaster that happened in Christchurch is so awful. Our thoughts are with everyone that has been affected.