Greetings from Kiwi Land!!!

Yes we have arrived safely and what a beautiful country it id too, although a little cooler- I have a feeling we are going to have to give in and purchase some warmer clothing pretty soon! Anyhooow... landed in Auckland about 5pm where we met kate (Claires friend from Camp who we were staying with for a few days!) She had a lovely little apartment just 10mins walk from the city which she shared with 3 friends, Lisa, Katy and Mel!) That evening we had a girls night in, kate cooked a lovely meal and we enjoyed a few sophisticated glasses of vino! :-)

The next moring we woke late- must have been the jetlag but we hate a personal tourguide for the day. Mel showed us the sites of the city, we walked around the harbour, grabbed a coffe, went up the skytower which was pretty similar to the one in Sydney, there was also a street performers festival on that weekend- rather amusing! Auckland was pretty much like a mixture of Sydney and London though, felt a lot more like home! With aching feet we headed back via the Kiwi exp office to book our first stop up to Paihia bay of islands and cape reigna! That evening we went to a traditional kiwi house warming party with the girls! So Claire and I headed to the liquor store to purchase some yummy cheap vino it was that disgusting we had to drink it rather rapidly!! Was a pretty cool party with fire twirling going on in the garden! then headed home to continue the party into the early hours!

Day 2 in Auckland....HANGOVER DAY woke feeling terrible so we all headed out for breakfast to get rid of out shakes...failed!! Had a girls day in veg'ed on the sofa all day watching dvds! We told ourselves we deserved one as when we start our tour it will be 7am starts!! As u can guess we did't make it out that evening either! Rubbish i know!

Sunday we woke feeling fresh and headed Albany to watch the men's olympic hockey qulaifiers, Ireland 1 NZ 3, a pretty good game! We then travelled to kate's parents house where we were all invited for dinner! An amazing house it was, huge gardens and views, she even had her own tennis courts! Steph and Claire had a game whilst i was ball girl yet again!! We then relaxed in the gardens as guests started arriving, what we thought was going to be a quiet meal turned out to be a big bbq with about 20 guests- yummy it was! Steph and Claire then played tennis again with Kate's dad and a friend, got v competitive, i spectated with the girls and vino! Home time...alarms set for 6am for 6.50 depart up to Paihia for the first leg of our kiwi experience!!