Hi, me again! Its been a while since I last wrote a blog entry, its was in Melbourne and that seems ages ago seeing as I'm now into my 'magic' bus tour of the New Zealands South Island. This of course means we've done LOADS of stuff since then too so I'll get cracking!

The Ramsay Street tour was (of course) brilliant, everything seems a lot smaller in real life and we met Duncan (one of the actors for those non fans!) and the evening Neighbours night was even better. We came second in the quiz somehow, but unfortunatley the 2nd prize was nothing whereas the winners got $500 so we were a bit peeved! A few of the other actors were there in the evening too - Steve Parker and Michelle Scully (a bit rubbish) but also Dylan(!) and of course Dr Karl Kennedy whose band played at the end of the night (lots of really cheesy songs but good fun after enough stubbies!). The next day we were getting another overnight bus back to Sydney so we spent the day walking around and using the free trams (free because there never seemed to be anyone checking tickets so we opted not to buy them!).

We visited a nice Cathedral, sampled the cafe culture and we also went to the old Melbourne Jail (Gaol) which was once home to the apparently infamous Ned Kelly before he was hung there (I'd never heard of him before, though I know everything there is to know about him now!). The jail was actually really interesting as we could read the stories of previous inmates and get arrested (which included spending time in the cells in the dark still with all the graffiti and 'authentic' stains- nice!). Despite having all day free and 'loads' of time to get to our coach, general lateness and a malfunctioning baggage locker meant we managed to be running to the depot with massive bags and numerous carriers. We only just got the bus and then it was ANOTHER uncomfortable night on a bus!

Back in Sydney we had one last day so all mosied around seeing the last few things on our Sydney list and picking up some souveniers and then it was Goodbye Australia, Hello New Zealand for the third leg of our trip!

Since coming to New Zealand (which so far seems to be a mix of England and Canada in terms of landscape) we've packed a lot in. We stayed at Gemmas house on Aucklands Northshore whilst in the North island which has been so good - home cooked food and a bit of normality (we've never been so quiet as when we were eating a roast dinner Gemmas mum had ccoked for us!). Gemma has been our tour guide of the north island, taking us into Auckland, to the West coast black sand beaches near Auckland (Piha and Betthels Beach - such stunning coastline and massive empty beaches with crashing waves = pretty awesome!) and then on a mini North island tour for a week driving us around in her fun bus!

We went to the Waitomo caves first, famous for its glowworms clinging to the roof. It was quite an experience floating along a dark lake when suddenly chambers full of glowworms appeared. There were options to do more adventurous things (like abseiling down, caving and luging along the underground rivers) but not being a particularily adventurous type and on a budget(!) we went for the safer and cheaper option of a boat. Next stop was Lake Taupo (more beautiful scenery - a lake the size of singapore!) and we were entering the geothermal region so lots of steam coming out of the roadside and hillsides we drove past - very odd! We only stayed one night in Taupo and then onto Rotorua where we were staying in a resort we'd got cheaply through Gemmas Mum which meant for the same price as a hostel we got our own lush apartment (i.e our own bedrooms, lounge, decking, kitchen, showers and boat mooring place!!). We went to Wai O Tomo (a Geothermal park) and saw lots of bubling mud pools, steam vents, geisers, craters, bright coloured minerals, etc It was all really interesting but the smell, eugh! it is really bad, imagine egg sandwiches left in a hot car for about a week and u are nearly there! In Rotorua we also went White Water Rafting which we all really loved (despite Gemma and Laura having to be persuaded that they wanted to do it!). IT was a grade 3/4 river (the Kaituna) but with a grade 5 rapid in the middle which at 21feet was the highest commercially rafted fall you can get. There were no casualties, altho the 21ft fall did manage to dislodge Holly from the raft and throw Laura from the front to the back seat!). The following day we left Rotorua and went North to the Coromandel peninsula stopping off at Hot Water Beach to dig our own spa (rather unsucessfully due to an unusually high low-tide and a thousand people packed into a few square feet!) before heading onto Whitianga to find a hostel (for one of the largest towns in the region it was still tiny - I've definiely come to realise how few people there are in NZ when u come out of Auckland!). The drive was pretty spectacular with mountain ranges one side and the pacific the other and we;d been quite lucky with the weather, having sun most of the time. THe next morning we walked to Cathedral Cove (quite an effort - lots of steep uphill bits but all good training for the inca trail!). It was really beautiful, a huge arch in the sea cliffs and we were there relatviely early in the morning (for once!) so it was quite quiet with morning haze and light adding to the picturesque views.

From the Coromandle Gemma drove us back to Auckland for a quick stopover and change of clothes then we caught the ferry over to Waiheke islands where we'd hired a 'batch' (holiday cottage)for the wekend with some of Gemmas other friends. Waiheke was very small and chilled out, a lot like cornwall really and our 'batch' was a really pretty house 2 seconds from one of the bays on the island. That weekend we played lots of board games (which Laura and I seemed to win all of!), ate 'fush and chups' and BBQ's and we also hired bikes to cycle around the island (altho in the couple of hours we were cycling around we managed to realise that u can actually forget how to ride a bike and that we have absolutely no sense of direction getting lost not once but twice! We were going to visit some vineyards as there are lots on the island but after our bike-riding extravaganza, it started to pour with rain whihc hampered our plans.

We left Waiheke on Sunday morning catching the ferry back to Auckland as the five of us were leaving Gemma again to go to the South island that night (after stopping off at a mall to stock up on layers and jumpers !). I'm going to have ot pick this up in a while as I've no coins left for the internet!

To be continued....