3rd - 13th July North Island - New Zealand The next leg of our adventure begins when we touch down in Auckland airport 2 ½ later than scheduled which nearly proved a problem as Mike & Karen (Mike old BT chum) were picking us up!! Needless to say they had the for-sight to check the flight details on t'internet the night before!! A mild panic set in as we had no way of contacting them just as they walked into the main entrance of the airport. We spent a lovely couple of days with them catching up on old work times and finding out about their new and exciting life in New Zealand. They lived in a small town called Walkworth about an1hr north of Auckland. Karen showed us the local sights including Goat Island and Paitaki beach. A home cooked meal and peanut butter on toast were very welcome after nearly eight weeks in South America! A couple of cheeky beers with the old Gayne-meister certainly allowed us to relax before planning our next steps!! Our next destination was Waitomo Caves, home of the famous glow worm!! A few hours on a bus away from Auckland but nothing compared to a SA bus ride. We stayed at a really pleasant hostel called Juno Hall and booked up for a Black water rafting experience the following day!! This involved donning a wetsuit, harness, helmets and fetching white wellie boots before abseiling into an underground cave system, sliding down a zip wire into the pitch black and jumping off a cliff into pitch black underground river!! It was freezing cold, dark, very damp ?.but well worth it the glow worms were amazing. We both had so much fun and would jump at the chance at doing it again! Rotorua was our port of call. A smelly place due to the high sulphur and geothermal activity. Just like rotten eggs or stink bombs!! After checking in at Blarney rock backpackers we wasted no time in finding the cable car to gain great views of the city and whilst we were there could resist a couple of goes on the down hill leuge which was great grown up kid fun!! Day two of Rotorua we visited Hells Gate which was a large Geo-thermal site with hot pools of mud and water bubbling away either side of the narrow path ways! Steam wafted across the site disguising a lot of the park a lot of the time. An amazing place quite eary but all the minerals in the mud & water have healing properties exploited at the expensive spa!! That evening we visited the Maori village of Mitai. We were greeted by Maori warriors on a boat before being entertained in traditional Maori way with dance and song with a traditional Hang meal to finish, cooked over hot rocks in the ground. Yummy!! Just like a giant lamb roast!! Time to move on with Taupo next on the agenda. Another shorter bus ride & stop at Hukka falls on the way, this time saw us arrive at the travel interchange. With no particular agenda we searched for accommodation for the night. We found it at the Silver Ferns flash packers!! A relatively new back packers with all modern amenities including a playstaion 3 hired by the manager!! We were hoping for a parachute jump in Taupo but the weather didn't break for us. A day or so with no money thanks to the banks fraud dept. working overtime!! On a whim we decided to do a bungee jump which we had both vowed never in our lives to do. An amazing experience though!! 47m bungee over the Hukka River we decided to jump in tandem and with not much time to think about it we were strapped in and jumped off!! Wow what a rush!! We both loved it and said we would definitely do it again. Madness over we resigned ourselves to a couple of beers and an early night!! Windy Wellington was to be our last stop in the North Island and having arrived late in the afternoon and with darkness falling we managed to find a cheap backpackers but had to walk miles from the bus station to find it!! Let me tell you they don't call it 'Windy Wellington' for nothing!! That night we found a Curry House which was doing BOGOF curries which we indulged in. No Ringwood curry garden / cottage standard but all good!! We only had one full day to enjoy the sights of Wellington but with the weather very much against us we were limited to indoor things!! First up a well deserved haircut for us both before heading to the national museum 'Te Papa' which was a state of the art national museum detailing the history of New Zealand in fun and innovative ways. The rest of the day was spent dodging rain and puddles seeing as much as we could!! A meal at the hostel and pack our bags before a good night sleep. Early ferry to catch from the Harbour to Picton