After an amazing 2 weeks in the south island we caught a flight back up to Auckland which was a harrowing ordeal for both of us.... it was raining so bad and the turbulence was just horrific!!

We then picked up our new car which was a big 12 year old kiwi station wagon!! So stylish.... although Craig referred to it as 'The Beast'! We then checked into our accommodation and headed to Kelly Tarltons Aquatic Centre, we had a great afternoon meeting the penguins and watching the stingrays being fed (very bizarre.... an absolutely huge flat fish acting like a dog at feeding time.... even liked its tummy tickled)!

The following day we decided to take a drive up to the north of the island to a place called Whangarei to visit ZionWildlifeGardens! This is where they filmed ' The Lion Man' programme! We were gutted when we realised Craig Busch (the actual lion man) does not work there anymore due to some kind of bust up with his mother....... but we were lucky enough to have Ash as our guide..... he also appeared in a couple of the series!

We decided to go for the tour where you get to see all the animals being fed after you have been shown the park, it was absolutely fantastic and much bigger than the TV shows… until you see them you will not believe how big the white tigers are (biggest cats in the park). Ash went into the pens with most of the animals just like the lion man would have… he was even sitting on the back of one lion like a horse! SO GOOD! The whole tour lasted 3 and a half hours as opposed to the advertised 2 hours, this was purely because Ash was so enthusiastic for people to learn about the animals like he has!

We set off to our accommodation for the night in Karibu Creek…… when we booked the forest view room we didn't actually realise we would be 30km into the forest itself (not a pleasant drive at night!) although when we arrived we were more than happy… Maxine (the owner) welcomed us and showed us to our room in the guest cottage, we really lucked out as nobody else was booked in we ended up with a three bedroom, 2 bathroom house all to ourselves for only $50 (about 19 pounds). Maxine was lovely and offered us full use of her gardens which included strawberries and fresh eggs from the chickens! Cooked dinner in our very own kitchen and had a laugh watching bowfinger!

We woke up on our last full day in New Zealand to see Karibu Creek was even more amazing in the daylight…… no check out times here, Maxine offered us the use of the cottage for the day if we wanted but we unfortunately had to hit the road to make the most of our last day! Next stop Rotorua!