So this post is slightly late as it turns out people aren't lying when they say Internet access in New Zealand is bad. Sofia literally had more Internet in a tiny village in Laos.

We arrived in Auckland on Saturday night and spent the next three nights there recovering from our jet lag and exploring the city. Despite being New Zealand's biggest city, it's made up of numerous small suburbs, each with a characteristic of their own. On our first day we visited Devonport - after only a short ferry ride across one of the harbours you find yourself in what looks like a quaint seaside town. We climbed up Northhead for spectacular views of the city and then down to a secluded beach from where you could see Ropongi island. In the evening we visited Ponsonby where you can find lots of cafes and art shops. The next day we visited Parnell and its famous rose garden, then climbed Mount Eden for amazing (and free) views of the area.

On Tuesday morning we got up early to get on our first kiwi experience bus. We'd been slightly hesitant about booking this as we felt it was a bit of a cop out letting someone else organise our trip, but knew straight away we wouldn't regret it. Our first stop was Paihia in the Bay of Islands, where we started the stay by winning a pub quiz with some of our new friends. The next day was another early start with a trip up to the very top of New Zealand. This involved a drive along the sand of the so called 90 mile beach, which is actually only 88km or so. We then went up to the huge sand dunes and sandboarded down. Despite looking terrifying from the bottom, and exhausting to climb up, this was definitely worth it and a lot of fun. By the time we got up to Cape Reigna it was raining pretty hard, but the views of the Tasman sea and Pacific ocean meeting were very impressive.

We had an extra day in Paihia which was spent mostly on the beach, before heading back to Auckland on Friday. We only had one evening there which we spent at the Chinese latern festival and then watching The Great Gatsby for free in Silo Park. On Saturday morning we got on another bus to start the main part of the trip.