Katie:We left Auckland on our first Kiwi Experience bus to Pahia in The Bay of Islands. We arrived at Pahia in the early afternoon and went for a walk around the area. We made use of the free bike hire at the hostel & went for a ride around the local area and along the beach front- the bikes were quite fun as they had no gears & you had to pedal backwards to brake! We rode back to the hostel just before it poured down with rain & spent the rest of the...

Arrived in Tauranga at around 3am and was very knackered, but it was wonderful to finally see David & Maria again. The following day after a long lie in David & Maria took us around the local area of where they live. We drove to see their beach (which was lovely despite the cold weather) and after a lovely lunch we started to walk up Mount Maunganui until it started to rain. The view was lovely and it was then we realised how easy it is to fall in love wi...

Katie:Left Magnetic Island and made our way to Cairns, our final stop on the Oz Experience bus. On the way to Cairns we stopped off at a Crocodile Farm which was loads of fun if not a bit scary! We walked around watching these crocodiles being fed- they were absoultely huge! The owner was a nutjob and sat on the biggest croc and placed his hat on his head. They were really fiesty creature- one bit the workers rake in half. Arber was a lot braver than me (I jumped...

Took the Oz bus from Airlie to Townsville, happy to leave behind the bed bugs of Airlie Beach (they were gross & we got quite a few bites) but less happy to leave behind the people we have met. Arrived in Townsville at 2pm ready to catch the ferry across to Magnetic Island and thankfully the rain was finally coming to an end. Arrived on the island and took the bus to our hostel Base, a wonderful hostel right on the beach with little cabins with good views. We...

We took the bus to Airlie Beach which is where we met the boat for our sailing trip around The Whitsunday Islands. We made our way to Abel Point Marina where we boarded our sailing boat Prima. On board there were 6 other passengers (all of which were German) and the Skipper Steve and our host Camille. We sailed to Hook Island where we anchored for the night. After eating a fab dinner cooked by Camille we spend the evening playing cards & poker. We woke up the...