I am now in New Zealand!!!!

After leaving Broome I spent 4 days in Melbourne. This time was mainly spent catching up with friends from when I worked here 4 years ago and going back and seeing places, seeing how much the city has changed. Was a nice few days, had lovely weather. Was weird going back to my old house and being back in Melbourne, but was nice to go back. Melbourne has hardly changed at all.

I then headed over to New Zealand. I spent the first 2 days in New Zealand in Auckland. I had a look around the city, didn't really do much here though as I know I'm going back there and so have time to do things there later on. On Wednesday I started on the Kiwi Experience bus heading down to the South Island. I am coming back to the North Island so am heading straight down to the South to meet a friend so can travel with her for a bit.

The first stop out of Auckland was Mercury Bay. Here we went to a beach that has hot rocks under the sand so the water is boiling on the beach. You bury your feet in the sand in the hot water and then they cool down when the tide comes in. After here we continued on to Rotorua, stopping at where Hobbition in Lord of the Rings was filmed. When we arrived in Rotorua the first thing that hits you is the smell......rotten eggs. Rotorua has lots of Sulphur under the ground and so has lots of steam rising from hot mud pools all around the town. It does really smell though. When we arrived a few of us opted to go Zorbing, This consists of getting in a big inflatable ball with some warm water and rolling down a hill. It's how I reckon being in a washing machine would feel like. Was good fun though.

After Rotorua we headed off to Waitomo and the Ruakuri Caves. Here we did the 'Black Abyss'. We started off by abseiling 35m down into a hole in the dark. You then take a flying fox, still in the dark, further into the cave. These caves are famous for their glow worms which are all above you. Looks like a galaxy above, really cool to see. You then jump off a ledge into the freezing cold water with your rubber ring and float along the river in the dark checking out all the glow worms above you, was really cool. You then walk and swim through the caves which was good fun, cold, but a good laugh. When it was time to exit the caves we had to climb up the rocks going against a waterfall. That was tough but was so worth it when we were finished. It was an awesome experience, really enjoyed it, was exhausted by the end though.

After Waitomo we headed to Taupo. There is a lot to do here and is a pretty place, great views of the mountain across the lake, but I'm going to stop here and check it out properly on my way back up next month at some point. I did do a walk near the mountain to some waterfalls which was good, so pretty and such fresh air. We then continued on to River Valley which is a really pretty setting in a valley (funnily enough) by a river. Here was a good place to chill out before we headed into Wellington today.

Wellington has a good feel to it as a city, another place to check out properly on the way back. Tomorrow I will head over on the ferry to the South Island and onto a place called Nelson to meet my friend and start our adventure activities in the South.....jet boating, white water rafting, bungee jumping, glacier hiking to name a few. So much to do and see in New Zealand, lots of money to be spent, but so much fun to be had!!

New Zealand has been good so far, and we've been so lucky with the weather, it's lovely and sunny. Fingers crossed it lasts :-)

xxx