22/7/9 Whitianga to Rotorua We left Whitianga and stopped at the Karangahake Scenic reserve to take a walk through a gorge. We crossed two swing bridges and entered a few abandoned mining tunnels carved into the side of the gorge used for gold mining years ago. It was pitch dark inside and we had a laugh feeling our way through banging into each other. It was a very picturesque walk with lovely views over the river and gorge. We got back on the bus and passed th...

21/7/9 Whitianga (Fitianga) After an early check out we joined the Kiwi bus for our trip to Mercury bay. We met Matt our next driver/guide and he was a real character, full of enthusiasm and a good laugh. There are only 11 passengers so its a pretty quiet bus and everyone is really friendly. We stopped briefly at the kiwi office for people to book onward travel seats which we had already done. We stopped off at Mount Eden (Maungawhau) another of Aucklnads volcan...

17/7/9 Paihia back to Auckland We were booked onto a Te Waka tour of the bay which is a three hour trip but woke to see pouring rain. We had breakfast at the place we were meeting Nick the fella taking us on the trip. He arrived and said the trip was cancelled as noone would enjoy it in the foul weather much to Lizzies relief as she was already pretty cold. We went to the jetty to get our money refunded and then mooched about the shops for a while. Phil had anot...

14/7/9 Bay of Islands After a terrible nights restless sleep we had to be up at 6am to catch our bus. We reserved beds at the hostel in Auckland so we had a bed after the game, still hoping for tickets. We got toasted bagels for breakfast and boarded the kiwi bus. The driver acts as a tour guide and she was called Fly. Fly gave a commentary as we drove along through Auckland over the harbour bridge and through town. The bridge had an extension of four new lanes ...

13/7/9 Auckland-Aotearoa/Land of The Long White Cloud Hello readers. Sorry for the gap in our travel update, we have been really busy enjoying ourselves as you will read and are now going to update things so you will be up to date. It takes a long a time to write the blog and absolutely ages to upload the photos so bear with us.... today is actually the 28/7/9 and so this is all back dated then we should be back on track. During our flight from Santiago we jump...