Day 86: we had an early start today as we were picked up and started our kiwi experience! We headed north of Auckland up to the bay of islands and a town called pahia. Unfortunately the weather wasn't very could so we couldn't do to much when arrived has the main activities are all beach related. But we spent time around the hostel and got to know some of the people we will be travelling with! In the evening we had a BBQ and then had a few drinks in the bar!

Day 87: today the weather wasn't much better but it had stopped raining so we went out on an all day bus tour around the bay of islands. Our first stop was puketi kauri forest, home to new Zealand's biggest native tree, the keri keri tree. We then headed out onto 90 mile beach, new Zealand's longest beaches and is actually a registered highway so the bus drove us up some of the beach. We stopped at the top of the beach to do some sand boarding. The sand dunes are huge and so hard to climb, I only made it up twice and both times completely failed going down and ended up with a face full of sand! Our last stop was to the very top of new zealand where the tasmin sea and the pacific ocean colide, it was pretty cool because you could actually sea the two oceans coming together! I. The evening as it was my birthday we had few drinks in our room with some of our bus friends! Then went down to the bar but since I polished off a bottle of wine in the room mikey had to take me to bed pretty early!

Day 88: today the weather had finally cleared up and it was beautifully sunny! Just in time for our dolphin spotting tour around the bay of pahia. We were only on the boat 5mins when we seen a big group of bottle nose dolphins close to shore. We didn't think we would get the chance to swim with them as they were feeding. This was amazing to see, they were in the shallows hunting and sped through the water like torpedoes! We followed the dolphins for a few minutes but they were still feeding. Eventually a few of the younger ones started to show an interest in our boat and soon enough the rest stopped feeding and came over. The guide double checked to make sure there was no babies with them and then told us that we could get in the water with the dolphins! Although the water was cloudy and visibility was poor it was amazing to be in the water with them, and as soon as we got in the water they should an interest in us and started swimming around as and diving under us! We had a great day!

Day 89: today was our last morning in the bay of islands before we headed back down to Auckland in the afternoon. The weather was still good so we just chilled on the beach before the bus arrived. In the evening when we arrived in Auckland we made a curry with jack and beak (our bus friends), then had some drinks in the bar!