Ok we apologise for the delay on this one, but here comes our North Island Adventures...

We arrived in the capital Wellington a little sad to have left our South Island days behind us but looking forward to what the North Island had to offer.

The first night in Wellington we spent checking out the local haunts and celebrating Matt's 21st Bday!! (who we met rafting) After lots of cheesy dancing in the local club we managed to rise the next day with not too much of a hangover and went out to explore the city. We had a mooch around the shops and took in the pleasant atmosphere of the nice sunshiny day. Time to get some culture at the 'Te Papa' Museum...free entry of course! Maybe slightly more geared towards children we were in our element hehe playing on all the silly games and trying out all the exhibitions - one particular favourite of ours was the photo room... yep we felt famous! And of course we paid a visit to the world famous colossus squid which was pretty interesting.

Our second and final evening in Wellington we decided to treat ourselves to cheap night at the cinema after our lame bowl of soup for dinner! Marley & Me was our choice and it was soooo nice going to the cinema again we were really excited and loved the film, needless to say we shed a few tears!

Time to move on again and next stop Lake Taupo....this meant only one thing....SKY DIVE TIME!!! As you can see from our pictures this was incredible and pretty hard to describe! It all happened so quickly, one moment we were getting off the bus next thing you knew we had our overalls on and we were up in the plane! It didn’t take Katie long to figure out that as she was sitting by the door she would be the first one to take the plunge!!eek!! Our instructors took great pleasure in our absolute fear and enjoyed winding up us up as we slowly climbed to 15,000 feet over the biggest lake in New Zealand!!!
Before we had time to change our minds the plane door was open and Katie was hanging over the edge! Jem just managed to squeeze in a good bye and good luck before she was gone! Literally two seconds later Jem was by the door not feeling prepared either but no time to think ..... we can honestly both say it was the best thing we have ever done!! Totally indescribable the feeling and buzz you get as you freefall through the clouds, you feel completely disorientated and overwhelmed but amazing at the same time!! Obviously we both landed safely and only 3 weeks until you all get to see the video! Lucky you! haha.

Whilst in Taupo we also visited the natural hot springs to take a dip which was lovely, so bizarre as it really is like being in a bath not ones to complain but it does get a bit too hot at times and so you have to move around to find a cold patch to take a breather for a second.

Back on the bus and off to Waitomo. With our funds now severely drained from all the New Zealand adventures it was sadly time to take a breather. Luckily we had a glorious day for it and so took pleasure in taking a peaceful stroll through the country side to the local pub for a glass of cider. This however was not before a stop at the local rabbit shearing shed where we watched a huge, white, fluffy angora rabbit have its coat sheared off - quite random but funny to watch as the rabbit looks like its on a bbq as the lady turns it round in order not to miss a spot! haha.

Rotorua was our next port of call and being geographically surrounded by sulphur and natural geysers there was a severe eggy stench in the air that wasn’t too pleasing on the nostrils! Despite this we met up with our old Kiwi bus driver and friend (who Katie did the Nevis Arc swing with) and had a fun night out at the bar hostel, also befriending some English lads from our dorm room.
The next day surprising as it may seem we were feeling a little rough. Some much needed brekkie and a nap later and we were ready to do something fun. We hopped on a public bus and made our way to the local adventure centre where we signed up for 'The Swoop' As you will have been able to tell from the pictures we did not really expect this to be as scary as it was. At 40 metres high and suspended together in a harness similar to a sleeping bag, as we were hauled up higher and higher we suddenly started to get very scared!! We really had not prepared ourselves for this! eek! As the man yelled to Katie to pull the cord to release us our fate was in her hands! haha! All she kept yelling was that she couldn’t and I was left not knowing when the hell we were going to drop! As we finally plunged down and 'swooped' through the air we screamed a hell of a lot more than we imagined as it really was bloody scary!! But brilliant fun!

Drawing ever nearer to the end of our New Zealand adventure we next made our way to the largest city - Auckland. Arriving fairly late in the afternoon we took a wander and cooked ourselves dinner in the hostel kitchen. We had now accumulated several 2 for 1 base hostel drinks vouchers so thought it silly not to use them up! hehe. We bumped into the English lads from our room in Rotorua and so arranged to meet them down in the bar. Several G & T's later and some crazy dancing with lots of scary locals around us we eventually called it a night at 5am with a 7am bus ride to the Bay of Islands looming!!! Oh dear oh dear!!

That 6:30am alarm clock came round way too quickly for our liking and after a "Katie hangover special" You all must know what this means by now!! We were on the Kiwi bus heading up to the bay of islands feeling very sorry for ourselves. Within minutes our new bus driver had named us boozy Suzy and we realised it really was time for some chilling!! With not much money and not a lot of enthusiasm we made our way to the beach and spent the afternoon lazing about with a tad of sunshine to cheer us up.
The next day we were raring to go again and after way too much beer etc in New Zealand we embarked on a 4 hour coastal walk! It was really enjoyable with some great views and a much needed stretch to the old legs! Sadly just as we made our way back to the hostel the heavens opened....and the rain did not stop for the next 2 days!! With not much to do with the poor weather and Katie now having gotten ill New Zealand and its craziness had finally taking its toll on us and we were feeling ready to move on.

One quick stop back at Auckland and it was great to see Adrian - one of our lovely lads from the South island crew and catch up with him for the evening. It was his final night of travels and so he very kindly offered to pay for us all to have dinner and having heard of Katie’s sore throat had even popped to the pharmacy to buy her some strepsils - bless!!!! Our final day in New Zealand we spent running errands, Katie paid a visit to the Doctors, we caught up on laundry etc. In the evening however it was nice to catch up with yet another friendly face, this time Richard who we partied with some time ago back in Cairns, Australia! Was great to hear what he'd been up to in the last 3 months since we saw him and with us both heading to places where the other had been was wicked to pick up some tips and offer our wisdom to him. hehe.

So there you go...another month had gone by and it was time to wave goodbye to yet another country and some absolutely unbelievable experiences!! New Zealand is definitely going to be hard to beat!!!!!!!