Kia Ora!! Hope everyone is doing well? Glad to see that Dad's been active on the photo comments! And even Granny... nope that wasn't mine and I dont think he did give it back!! And as for my favourite T shirt ever, its a dead bat! Its a brand called Skeleanimals... even dead animals need love!! Brilliant!!

Ok, I left you all hanging on my last day in Auckland... man I've done a lot since then!! The next day (Tuesday) we hopped on the Kiwi Experience bus and set off for Paihia, in the Bay of Islands!! Unfortunately the weather wasnt too crash hot so I couldnt do my planned parasail over the islands, and I forgot to put my name down for horse trekking as a back up!! Doh! So Janet and I just spent the afternoon relaxing in the hostel and getting caught up on a few things!

Wednesday was a long day on the bus as we made our way up to Cape Reinga, the Northern most point of New Zealand! On the way we stopped off to do different things including sandboarding! I didn't partake this time coz you had to take glasses off and as you all know I'm blind without them and there wud be no point in doing it if I couldnt see where I was going! But Janet did it, and she had a ball! She just wore her sunglasses... I still don't have my sunglasses... bloody OPSM!!! After sandboarding we walked down to the North tip of New Zealand, where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, and where NZ ends! It was pretty cool and we were lucky enough with the weather not to get soaked!! Wooo!! On our way back we stopped off for New Zealand's best fush n chups! It wasn't bad actually and I dont eat fish! But I tired it and had red snapper which was lovely!

Thursday I was up early to go on a doplphin cruise! It also took us to Cape Brett and the world famous (???!) Hole in the Rock! Our skipper made no delay in telling us that there would be a 99% chance that we wouldnt make it out there as the sea was unforgiving... you can imagine the look on my face when he said that... Lol. But i had drugged up with SeaLegs the night before... So off we went and cruised rockily around the Bay of Islands. We saw 2 large pods of dolphins (yep... more dolphin pics to come!!) and stayed with one of them for quite some time. We couldn't get in to swim with them tho because they had a baby! Aww bless!! Then the skipper faced a challenge, another company had started the perilous journey out to Cape Brett... if they can do it, we can do it, was the mentality... I went a paler shade of green and held on tight! There were moments where the boat was completely surrounded by walls of water... I lost my horizon and panicked! But it only lasted 20 minutes and with me praying to every God I could think of, made it to the other side without seeing my breakfast again! It was a little calmer (by that I mean the horizon was just about visible between waves) once we got into the Pacific Ocean and we got quite close to the Hole in the Rock! We didn't manage to go thru it.... Thank Gods!! We came back in and stopped off at one of the Islands for a break from the sea then headed on back to Paihia. Those SeaLegs travel pills are magic pills as I wasn't sick once!! Woo!! Once I had unwound from the boat trip it was time to head back to Auckland. We stayed in the same hostel as before, and went for Dominos Pizza for dinner!!

Friday morning we headed on another Kiwi Experience bus with our driver guide Mangee (bleached blond mullet.... nuff said) and we headed south! OUr first stop was Mount Eden, a dormant volcano where we took in 360 degree views of Auckland city! We then headed to Hot Water Beach... now don't get excited, the sea water wasn't hot, its geothermal activity under the sand that heats up little pockets of water so you gotta dig down to find it! So we waited over an hour for the tide to go out, only to find that the low tide was a high low tide due to the full moon, so we just swivelled in the sea and dug our feet in and found some warmth! It was a bizaare feeling, but really cool! My jeans got soaked coz there was big waves coming in but sure, all part of the experience! Then we reached Mercury Bay, our overnight stop. We stayed in a lovely little hostel and had a homecooked meal of spag bol and garlic bread! Delish!!

Saturday (today) we left Mercury Bay and made the short journey to Rotorua. On the way we stopped off at Karangahake Gorge for a wee dander through the forest and a disused train tunnel that was 1km long, in the dark!! It was an experience to say the least!! After that we had lunch (Mangee was disgusted at the fact I was having creamed rice and pineapple!!!) then headed off to the Zorb site where me Janet and another girl were the only ones nutty enough to do it! It was a hell of a lot of fun... we all went seperately and down a zig zag track so we were thrown about all over the place! It was hilarious and I was screaming and laughing all the way down the hill!! For those of you who don't know wot Zorbing is, think a giant bouncy hamster ball with a bit of water thrown in there and you sitting in it as it rolls down a hill!! Hiilarious!!! Once we got ourselves over the adrenaline we hopped back on the bus and headed into Rotorua... it stinks! Rotten egg smell from the geothermal activitiy under the thinnest part of the worlds crust!! Its only 1.5km thick here as opposed to 15-20km thick everywhere else! We had an introduction into the Maori culture then found our hostel and got settled in. My bag got soaked (and most of its contents) under the bus so I got it all out and hung up only to find that I missed the bus to go luging... so annoyed! But atleast I can get you all caught up here!! Tonight we are going to a traditional Maori culture night, complete with a hangi (food cooked by hot rocks in the ground) so that should be pretty cool!!

Hope everyone is well, love and miss you all xxx