We were booked on a Free day tour around Auckland with Stray for today. The big old bus, which runs on used vegetable oil, picked us up at about 10am and we went to our first stop, the Sky Tower. There were about 35 of us on the tour, and the guide, called Chucky, got us to stand in a big circle to play a game of heads or tales. We had to make our choice by holding our bum for tales or head for...you guessed it, heads. He flipped a coin and whoever chose correctly got through to the next round. In the end, a girl from our bus won a free sky jump! Not bad - it's worth $175 (£90)! And then Chucky came out to get the guy who came second - he got a free sky jump too.

I wouldn't have minded a go! They had to jump from the top of the Sky Tower (can't remember how high it is) - it's a controlled jump rather than a bungee. I'd rather save my money to just do a bungee jump in the south island though.

After that, we were taken down to see the Viaduct area in the bay and to see one of the Americas cup yachts that one of the sailing trip companies has.
Then we went onto One Tree Hill where there is a memorial for one of the ex-prime ministers. From there we had lovely views over the bay and Auckland city plus all the volcanic islands nearby (Auckland is built around/on top about 45-50 volcanoes...).

We had lunch at nice place called Speight's Ale House. It was pretty expensive though so we just got a drink plus ciabatta bread and dips to share, then ate our bananas and apples that we had with us.

We had an hour lunch break and then made our way to the Auckland Harbour Bridge. It's nothing near as grand as Sydney, but it's alright. And we got a FREE walk along the bottom part to the bungee jump viewing platform, so can't complain! We got kitted out with some climbing gear and then walked on to watch two guys from our group do the bungee. It's only a short drop so I want to save my cash for one of the big ones in Queenstown. We watched a few others doing there jumps and on this one they dunk you in the water too! Looks pretty scary especially seeing as the one I want to do is 3-4 times higher than that one...

Tonight we met up with Jodie and Dean! We've been keeping in touch with them since we left them in Surfers Paradise. They had to do the same and get to New Zealand because of the Oz flooding but couldn't get a flight sorted as soon as ours. We met up with them around the viaduct area and went for a drink in a busy bar called something like Provedoa I think. It was good to catch up with them and we've also all booked the same Stray bus to leave Auckland tomorrow to start exploring NZ.

We also had some 2 for 1 vouchers for Minus 5 Ice Bar. None of us have been to one before so we decided to go seeing as we had the vouchers. It was pretty expensive though, $30 (£15) each, but at least it was 2 for 1. So we got kitted out with Ugg boots, big long winter coats and gloves - but I still had shorts and a t-shirt on underneath!! Therese's coat drowned her, it was massive. We walked into the bar, which is just a massive freezer, and it was freezing! Actually, it was minus 7 degrees!! Everything is made from ice inside - the bar, the drinks glasses, the seats and tables and then there's sculptures around.

They only serve cocktails, so we all got one of those each - $12 (£6) though! Obviously served in an ice glass too - not easy to hold with gloves on. We sat down at an ice table all, on an ice seat, with our big furry hoods up over our heads. You can't put the ice glasses down on the ice table because they stick together so they have these plastic mesh mats for drinks. They don't allow you to take cameras inside, but I managed to sneak a couple on my iPhone. Was pretty good in there, but too cold. Just as well you only get 45 minutes inside.

We walked on to another couple of bars but they were dead so then went up to Base Backpackers bar where Jodie and Dean are staying. But they wouldn't let me in because I had shorts and flip-flops on...you'd think it was a fancy bar or something but it isn't! We ended up calling it a night as it was midnight anyway and we've to be up early tomorrow to start our tour south!