Right, time for a mammoth blog about my adventures in the North Island of NZ! We have been traveling on the Magic bus like mad and since I last blogged we've been to...(deep breath)...Wellington, Napier, Mount Maunganui, Auckland, Bay of Islands, Cape Reinga, Whitianga, Waitomo, Rotorua, Taupo and then back to Wellington again. What a lot places in not a lot of time! So what have we done? Well...

Napier was our first real stop in the North Island but we did have a detour on the way to the Tui brewery to sample a pie and a beer. Napier is known as "The Art Deco capital of the World" and didn't disappoint as there were millions of great examples of the style in the buildings around the town. We spent the afternoon walking around snapping away with our cameras, trying to capture the peculiar 1920s/30s feel that the place has. We headed even further north the next day, through Taupo and Rotorua where we would be returning to later and onto Mount Maunganui. Before we got to the Mount though we had the opportunity to have a go at some Zorbing. Zorbing is basically chucking yourself into a huge sphere and being rolled down a hill! Steve and I decided to do a water zorb which is chucking yourself into a huge sphere full of water and being rolled down a hill!! It was great fun and a great way of cooling off after being on the bus for most of the day. Our evening in Mount Maunganui was mostly taken up with climbing the damn thing. We hiked up to the top, which was higher and harder than it looked, and when we got to the top we got to watch all the para gliders flying off the side of the mountain.

Auckland was our next visit. We had two days here which was plenty really as Auckland is much like any other big city. It was here that we got our first taster for the extreme sports that the Kiwis are so widely known for. We climbed the Auckland bridge to see some nutters bungy and then I got to watch another nutter (Steve) throw himself off the Skytower (192 metres high!). This was definitely the start of something as you'll find out later....

Our next connection after Auckland was to the Bay of Islands and my chance to swim with dolphins. I had to hop off the bus early and get ready for my boat ride. I was really excited about the chance to swim with dolphins - it's something I've always wanted to do - the weather looked good so everything looked positive. However, when we did come across the dolphin pods, we found two, both of them had babies which meant we couldn't swim with either of them. I was really disappointed but still chuffed that we got to watch them playing in the water. I've got some brilliant footage of them on my camera as well which I'll be able to look back on. We had two nights here so we spent the next day on a trip up to the mostly northerly point of New Zealand, Cape Reinga. We had an absolutely awesome bus driver for this trip, he was just so funny but you could tell he was really intelligent too as he knew so much about his country (needless to say he used to be a teacher!!). He really made our day special. We visited some giant sand dunes that were perfect for sliding down on body boards - "sand surfing" - hard work climbing up the dunes, scary at first but fantastic once you get the hang of it! Because our coach was specially designed we could drive along sand and water so we actually drove along a section of the famous 90 Mile beach (actually 64 miles don't you know!) before we stopped for some fish and chips on the way home! An awesome NZ day!

We then went back on ourselves a bit to visit Whitianga. We'd been looking forward to this stop because we wanted to have a go at making our own Maori bone carving. There's loads and loads of examples of these as necklaces and keyrings that you see as you're traveling around the country. We didn't want the easy option though, we wanted to make our own. So we visited the studio and picked our design - I thought it would be a piece of cake and couldn't understand why we would need 3 hours but believe me it is definitely a craft. You have to carve the bone with drills, sand it, wash it etc - sounds like nothing but it takes skill (I got lots of help with mine!). Though Steve was an absolute perfectionist and we couldn't drag him away. Just before sunset we went along to Hot Water Beach to dig our own hot water hole! The beach is situated on top of some volcanic springs which heat the water above and if you dig in certain areas you find the spring and voila! out comes boiling water (some parts hotter, some not). So you try and find a nice warm spot and you can have your own spa on the beach!! You can only do this at certain times though (low tide) and in certain places so it's very odd when you turn up and see crowds and crowds of people digging away in one spot trying to find hot water!

Waitomo was our weekend home and the home of the gloworms. We decided the best way to see the gloworns was to go caving. We had to kit ourselves up in our wetsuits, boots and helmets and tube (a big rubber ring). Then we went underground into the caves with our instructor. They lead you through all the nooks and crannies of the cave from small holes to waterfalls whilst telling you all about the gloworms that live there! It was really exhausting work and being in the dark for 3 hours, 65 metres underground, in the freezing water was pretty scary at times but the gloworms were magical!

We then started to head back down south again and onto Rotorua or Sulphur city as it's known! It's full of natural geothermal springs and volcanic activity - it was very smelly here too! I had a mud bath at one of the natural spas....still very smelly and not that relaxing actually! And then we headed to Taupo where we did a SKYDIVE!! About 85% of me was really curious about doing one but I was soooooo scared that I didn't think I could put myself through it but Steve signed us up and we went along to the airport to the skydive centre. I was really nervous when I got there but because of the shifts in the weather we ended up spending hours there so my nerves faded a bit as we got frustrated with waiting. Then suddenly in the space of about 30 mins it was time to go and we got kitted up and met our tandem masters!! We all got shoved into this teeny tiny plane and then before you knew it we were being shoved out of it! We jumped at 15,000 feet, the highest skydive you can do in New Zealand. For some reason or another I wasn't petrified like I thought I would be. The first few seconds when you are free falling out of the plane are crazy, but then the mini parachute goes up to stabilize you and you can start waving to the cameraman and looking around you while you're falling. Then the big parachute went up after 60 seconds and we just floated on down to the ground. It was truly amazing and just unreal - I can't really explain it to you! It was just one of the best things I've ever done!

Anyway, after all that excitement we're back in Wellington and tomorrow is Steve's last day in New Zealand. He'll be going home and leaving me to travel the South Island on my ownsome lonesome! I wonder if I'll be as adventurous without him...!?