So its about that time to fill you in on our antics in New Zealand.... We are majorly behind with the blogging, although it sounds unbelievable its so hard to find time to just sit down and write up about our adventures!

We excitedly arrived in Auckland at the beginning of March and met up with our mate Kerri-Anne who we first met in Vietnam. My luggage got lost yet again (why does it always happen to meee?), but I managed to get it back a couple of days later. 

Given the short amount of time we had to explore the whole of NZ (3 weeks) we decided to do a tour bus called the Kiwi Experience which enabled us to squeeze absolutely loads of both the North and South island. Now the Kiwi Experience bus has quite a reputation and is also referred to as 'the big green f*ck truck', the 'gonorrhoea bus' to name but a few which worried us a bit- it was nowhere near as crazy as that, and there was quite a good mix of age groups (still mainly 21 years olds though, we've given up on telling people how old we are, they never believe us.) yet again we met a brilliant group of people on this trip, the kiwi experience was such a great way to make mates who you ended up sticking with through the whole country. We had to play 2 truths and a lie and everyone believed I had acted in Bollywood films (numpties) so a group of Canadian lads called me and Ravi 'Bollywood' the whole friggin trip, so I decided to name them the 'Dead moose humpers' (cos thats what Canadians do right?)  

We were amazed by the beauty of the country straight away. Auckland was so pretty, especially from the top of Mount Eden, but when we ventured out on the coach the views just got better and better, every day was truly unbelievable. The 3 weeks were spent in:

The Bay of Islands - north of Auckland, a beautiful group of islands where we got to do a boat trip alongside dolphins (wished I had swam with them now, but this was at the stage of the trip where I was still a chicken sh*t, oh how things changed). 

Mercury Bay - went to a beautiful beach in the Coramandel Peninsula and watched everyone play extreme frisbee while we drank cider. Later on in Mercury Bay we met Kate properly who became the filling in our 'Gill Sandwich', us 3 stuck together throughout the rest of the trip and in Melbourne too, god we miss her! But she's gone home to Canada now! The whole bus ended up on Buffalo Beach (after going to the off license of course) where we spent the evening drinking and introducing ourselves to one another. 

Rotorua - on the way here we stopped off at Mata Mata, where the filming location for Hobbiton was. Facebook friends will have seen my cheesy photos crouched next to Golum. Rotorua is an unusual town where you can see steam coming from under the streets through the drains. It also smells like farts - the sulphur dioxide created by geothermal activity makes the place have a very distinctive smell!! We spent the day luging - oh sooo much fun. It involves driving your own cart and racing each other down 5km of winding tracks and trails, all with beautiful scenery. In the evening we went to Tamaki Maori Village, a recreation of a pre European Maori (the native people) village. We had to choose someone from our coach to be the chief to take part in the Maori challenge where they determine if we came as friend or foe, only then do they let you in. It said in the guide not to laugh at this stage because they all suddenly run out and pull some really crazy faces, we tried so hard not to laugh. I knew I wasnt meant to and thats the only reason I was wetting myself. It was great to see maoris actually doing the haka (what the all blacks do before a rugby game for those of you who don't know), and the hangi (traditional food) which is cooked under the ground was absolutely delicious!

Waitomo - where there are lots of caves made out of limestone hidden beneath the county side. Here we experienced one of the most amazing sights we've ever seen - the glow worm caves. We went into the Ruakari cave and walked through breathtaking caverns, narrow corridors and it culminated in a boat ride. When we looked up all we could see in the darkness were thousands of glow worms sparkling in green above. Amazing!!!

Taupo - the adventure capital of the north island. Lake Taupo is the largest lake in Australasia - big enough to fit Singapore into it. The spectacular views are what made me decide I wanted to do a skydive there. ravi's done one before and wanted to do it again but was feeling unwell that day so couldn't :( One of the best things I've ever done - I don't know why but I honestly wasn't that nervous, just really excited about it! The video is funny and will be up on facebook soon - I'm mainly posing for the camera rather than checking out the views to begin with haha typical me. That night we kicked arse in a major way in the pub quiz in our team by the name of 'Flanjitas' (guess who thought of that one).  

This is also where Ravi did the 19km Tongariro Crossing trek. This is where mountain ngauruhoe is which was used in the filming of the Lord of the Rings, otherwise know as Mount Doom. I chickened out  - I just couldn't be bothered to do it, it sounded horrendous and we'd heard stories of a guy breaking his leg the day before but Ravi was determined to do it so off she went with Kate at 5.30am the next morning. By all accounts it was really tough as they had bad weather up at the top of the volcano and thought they were going to get blown off but they made it back safe, sound and happy, albeit a bit wind chapped and sore. Ravi was hobbling around the next day but happy as Larry that she had done it.

River Valley - we stayed in a beautiful lodge here and opted out of the dorm called the 'orgy room' which was one massive bed that could hold 10 people, er no thanks!! Played my first ever game of golf which I am awful at, so we turned it into a game of extreme golf which ended up just an amalgamation of hockey and golf. 

Wellington - the big smoke and our last stop in North Island. It was pretty worrying that as we drove into Welly our driver decided to tell us that we were on a major fault line and the place was well overdue for an earthquake, especially after what had just happened in Christchurch! We spent St Paddy's day here, truly the best one I've ever had. Facepaint, marker pens (I had the urge to write 'i love c0ck' on anyone who would let me, even those who wouldn't) dorm parties and ending up in Molly Malones the Irish bar - the photos speak for themselves. There's a really good museum there that we visited the next day, but we were all so battered from the night before we kinda left after a couple of floors. 

We got a ferry to good ole South Island and visited -

Picton - there are lots of vineyards there so we enjoyed some wine (and liqeur) tasting and bumped into James who we met in Oz, a pleasant surprise! We stuck with him for the rest of NZ, mucchhhh laughs were had. 

Nelson - where we drank in a park out of booze in brown paper bags and decided to hit Nelson town on a Saturday night. Well we soon found out its the Hicksville of NZ when I ended up having a slanging match with one of the local girls across Mcdonalds car park (classy), who told me it was HER town.  She was a nasty piece of work, I didn't even do anything wrong, sigh. This is the night we had to take our passports out as ID, my oh my we laughed so hard at each others pics, ranging from Czechoslovakian orphans, Al Qaeda terrorists and Bangladeshi Morticia (me, and it's true). 

Lake Mahinapua - random deserted town that no one really goes to, this is where there's a themed party for us Kiwi Experience bus crew. On the way here we stopped at Greymouth which is famous for having inbred people. I saw a woman  down the road in a long red maxi dress - 'she' turned around and it was actually an old man. Just strolling along in a long red dress.  Like it was normal :-| We were told the day before that the theme would be plastic bags, so we had 24 hrs to make a costume. Ours were crap compared to some of the amazing ones we saw - truly brilliant tailored costumes out of carrier bags, I have no idea how they did it! Much fun was had at the party!

Fran Josef Glacier Village - this is where we did a full day 12km trek up and down a glacier. It was amazing and not the kind of thing I would ever do normally (exercise, me?!) so I was well proud of myself afterwards. There was a point where I veered off a bit and ended up teetering over a precipice. The guide shouted at me - woops! But people have been known to slip and die there, eek!

Wanaka - beautiful lakeside town where we did nothing but chill out. We visited Puzzling world where we experienced some mental mind bending stuff, and got stuck in a maze for a few hours. 

Queenstown - our last stop in South Island. Ravi convinced me and James to do the thing I feared most..... The 134 metre Nevis hire wire bungee - the 3rd highest in the world. Now a skydive we were fine with as its done in tandem with an instructor but the bungee was going to be a whole new level - having it in ourselves to stand on the edge and jump. It was truly terrifying and all of us were really scared all day. But once you see other people do it, you just know you have to jump as soon as the guy counts you down - if we had hesitated we would have been stuck teetering there forever. The funny thing was we were tossing coins between us as to who would go first so we could get it over and done with only to realise that the order is decided by weight and so we had no say whatsoever! Best thing we've ever done. Thanks sis for talking us into it you adrenalin junkie! The videos speak for themselves it was absolutely mental! The blood vessels on my cheeks popped and I had bungee headaches for 2 nights but it was totally worth it!

We tried Fergburger - a burger place that everyone recommended to us, my oh my they were truly the best and largest burgers we'd ever eaten. If ever any of you are in QT you have to go there. 

We did a day trip to Milford Sound - recently ranked as the worlds most beautiful place, and it lived up to that. We went on a 2 hr boat cruise through the sound exploring soaring peaks, towering waterfalls and NZ nature at it's best.  

We ended our time in south island with an epic night out with all of our Kiwi bus crew - as we all parted ways the next day :(

We would have loved to have gone to Christchurch but it was still all closed off from the earthquake, all the hostels were rubble, so sad. 

We got a flight back to Auckland and i got shown around by one of my ex colleagues, Hannah. Piha beach is gorgeous! We then partied with the crew we met in Vietnam - a great way to end our time there. 

New Zealand has been our fave country. I know I've used the word beautiful a million times but it's true.  We have NEVER seen natural beauty like it. If you ever have the opportunity to go there then GO!