Am I glad that I got out of Tauranga!  Although I did have a laugh I was glad to leave.  I stopped in Auckland for one night on Sunday and stayed in a hostel that was more like a hotel!  It was apartment style with 2 bedrooms and I had a room all to myself.  There was a shared bathroom and kitchenette and it was quite modern.  I left there at 8 on Monday and it was raining like never before.  I had a 4 hour bus trip up to Paihia...

After spending two nights in possibly one of the worst hostels I am so glad to be leaving here! Luckily for me I shared a dorm with 5 other nice girls/ladies. I made friends with a girl called Rachael who is a Kiwi and we went out for a few drinks on Friday night. We found a traditional English pub and stayed in there all night. Was quite good, they had a really good band on and the pub even had jugs hanging up everywhere just like The Castle! In fact, it wa...

I thought I'd spent far too long in Rotorua until last night.  On Wednesday night I went to the cinema for the first time on my own!  I saw John Tucker Must Die, which was pretty crap but better than sitting in a hostel with no TV and no English people.  So yesterday I was bored out of my brains and then I met a girl who was in my dorm, she was Aman from London.  So we got chatting and I started speaking to another girl called Hannah from ...

I am in possibly the smelliest place I have ever been (and yes, that includes some parts of London!).  I arrived in Rotorua yesterday and nothing could have prepared me for the smell, but already, I am kind of getting used to it.  Because there is a lot of Sulphur around here, it constantly smells like rotten eggy farts!  Some places are worse than others and it also depends on which way the wind is blowing (no pun intended there!).  It's ...

Last Wednesday I went over to Kapiti Island and the weather was beautiful.  We took a boat over (the island only allows 50 visitors per day and you have to get a permit from the Government).  I walked up the Wilkinson Track (which is meant to be easier!) and it took me nearly 2 hours to walk over 500m up to the summit.  The view was amazing, the sea was so blue and the sun was shining.  It took another hour to walk back down.I s...