So this is New Years Eve continued for anyone who's still reading

Hit the backpackers bar early about 6, and was adopted by a group of kiwi guys. Kiwi guys seem to fall in to two camps. The first are fake aussies - loud, big, do wolf whistles at women, bare their bums and snog each other when drunk for the laugh etc. However unlike aussies they're secretly a bit shy. The second group are just thoroughly nice, they lack any kind of edge, but they'd always be really nice to you about everything forever. I was adopted by the first group, with the unavoidable suggestion of "come and join us", and I reluctantly did having already surmised they belonged to that first group. For half an hour I then had the pleasure of their company as they chinked their glasses and cheered everytime a fit bird walked past. I got the feeling they expected that this would eventually result in one of these girls coming over and inviting them all to spend the night with her. Thankfully they eventually gave up, deciding to move bars. I made my excuses and stayed where I was to start my night out again.

Got talking to a Brazilian girl and an English guy from my dorm and we got very drunk till about 1145pm on kiwi beer. Kiwi beer is very very good indeed. The Brazilian girl says her country is beautiful but dangerous with only the south being advisable. At 1145pm we, and what appeared to be most of Paihia, headed to the beach to watch the fireworks. Suitable pissed by this stage we obviously took duvets from our room to sit on. What followed was a proper good fireworks display exploding up from the bay towards us; looking out across the reflections in the calm sea made it that more special. By this time our group had grown, and after a while thoughts naturally turned to swimming. However, being civilised we thought it would be a good idea to break into our closed and fenced off swimming pool in our backpackers, it being a bit warmer than the sea and all. Got back and secreted my trunks under my jeans in preparation for swimming, before climbing said fence. Found everyone else sat quietly whispering, already having broke into the pool. Proceeded to completely spoil the silence by tripping on a hose and falling fully clothed head first into the pool. To make even more of a splashing sound I formed a star fish shape on landing for some reason. The security guard was roused in seconds, and promptly told us all to get out. Friendly though he was, this is NZ, as we've already established. Went to get showered and thought it would be a good idea to go to bed. Was in bed when everyone else thought it would be a good idea for me to get up. Down to the beach again, hoorah, with duvets and a fresh supply of booze. Was sat minding my own business when along come the beach cops, torch in hand and spying my suspicious brown liquid in an Evian bottle. Deciding it wasn't apple juice but jd, the rozzer promptly took it off me and squirted it away. Good job everyone else had brought vodka in their Evian bottles. Stupid cops.

New Years Day, about 2 hours sleep later, drunk as the proverbial, get in my car and drive back down to Auckland for some much needed TLC at Lizzies, Get back to find her not in, and feeling worse than when I got up, got in my sleeping bag on her back garden and dozed for a while in the shade. Really needed a day doing nothing but Lizzie obviously had plans. Went around to her friends house, some mansion on a hillside that costs about 5 times less than it would do in england - $400,000 (about £150,000), and sat drinking beer on their balcony overlooking the coast. I can't recommend NZ enough if you have kids, want kids, or have had enough of british people, the quality of life here is just so god damn wholesome. Went into Auckland later for dinner on the marina, decided it's a bit like a small Canary Wharf, with about as much character.

Got up early and drove 4 hours to Rotorua. Rotorua is a small town that smells of bad eggs as it's volcanic and there's geothermal activity all around. The locals call it Rotovegas, after having finally cottoned on to the fact about 10 years ago that if they put a fence around a geezer they can charge people to see it. In the afternoon went up a cable car and then luged back down on some go-kart type device which was a scream. Also went on a bungy swing, which was brilliant, especially when I got off alive. This is my preparation for a real bungy, that i'm definitely going to do I keep telling myself.

The Maori's traditional way of cooking food is called a Haangi, where food is buried in the ground with hot volcanic rocks for about 3 hours and basically steamed in a pressure oven so meat is cooked really slow meaning it's really tender. I went to Haangi evening tonight, which in all honesty was crap. I my first crap thing in NZ. We were taken to a Maori village, which was nothing of the sort it turned out to be a place where Maoris were acting as traditional Maoris; pulling faces, dancing, lighting fires outside fake village huts, it was horribly bad. All the Japanese were lapping it up. The food was pretty decent, everything tasted slightly smoky even the veg. It was probably some kind of smoke flavour spray, and everything was probably secretly cooked a microwave. You can probably tell this wasn't my most impressive night to date.

The following day I spent the morning on a 2 hour walking tour soaking up some geezers (i'm presuming these are spelt the same way). I put my hand in to check the temperature when no one as looking (which is easy in NZ cos as someone told me who I can't remember, the entire country is like everyone's gone out) and was probably lucky to find out they were no hotter than a really hot bath. Skin intact, in the afternoon I did something I haven't done since I got here and watched tv! I was surprised to find that the TV lounge of a backpackers is bizarrely a great way to meet people, there's a constant stream of different people in and out throughout the day. Stand out traveller for today was a 21 year old American who was doing NZ on a budget, owning up after about 5 hours that she wasn't actually staying in the backpackers and had sneaked in for a shower as she was actually camping. She also didn't have any money to do anything in NZ, which seems a bit like to going to Alton Towers without any money to go on rides.

Oh I also need to mention the girl from Dover that hasn't moved from the TV lounge in 5 days. She's stuck in a endless hangover, but then gets sucked into drinking again by the time evening comes around, meaning every day repeats and she can't summon up the energy to move on to her next destination...

Today I have driven to Waitomo, where tomorrow I am going on a 7 hour caving adventure. I am currently sat in the best backpackers yet, all wood and very Scandinavian lodge like, set in countryside and surround by hammocks. Any day now i'm anticipating waking up to find my liver's left and took the car with him, so tonight and tomorrow i'm going to attempt alcohol free evenings, especially with all that exercise ahead tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Buena Vista. x