Oh my goodness today was mental. We hit the road round 6:30, having to be in Rotorua by 9. By 9:05 I found myself inside a Zorb ball filled with warm water flying down a steep slope. Insane fun, we each had three goes rolling down different parts of a grassy hill- one side made for speed, the other for zigzagging fun. As one of our fellow Zorbers put it- you feel like a hamster having the best day of his life. Back in the van and twenty minutes down the ...

Today was great fun- we started early, leaving our chilled out hostel and getting ready to go back to school. I've been meaning to do surfing lessons for ages- coming from Australia which is famous for it's surf, it's a bit embarrassing to think I've never stood up on a surfboard. Well, today was the end of the old lame Carly and the start of a new life- gnarly Carly. After a quick lesson on the basics of surfing our instructor drove us all down to the beach...

Another easy day, I'm afraid we'll get used to such lazy mornings. There's something nice about waking up in a home after staying in hostels for a few nights. Not that the YHA's haven't been amazing, there's just something nice about waking up and hearing the hustle and bustle of a family going through their morning routine, even if it's not your family. Tom was excited about showing us around and after a quick tour of the veggie patch and chicken coop he dr...

Today started well, we had our first much appreciated sleep in, a breakfast of scrambled eggs and a few cups of tea and a very easy pack up- ready for our three hour drive back down to Auckland. We made one more quick trip into central Paihia for a coffee and while browsing through the shops actually found a souvenir with my name on it! I've never seen that before and am overly excited about seeing my name printed on a piece of plastic- but there you go- small...

Tour groups have never really been my thing. Whenever I'm at a beach or attraction and a tour bus turns up I generally roll my eyes and curse the oncoming camera-wielding crowd. Well, today's tour was nothing like those other tours. For a start, we weren't in a bus, we were in the back of a kitted out truck- so much cooler! We started this trip thinking that today was just going to be about dune boarding, after all, that's what's on the brochure, but today w...