Ok well im at my cousins house at the mo and have about an hour til i get my shuttle to the airport to fly to south america - really looking forward to going there but gonna miss NZ so much especially all the family members i have got to know here!! Sob sob!! So on sat my cousin, diane, picked me up and we headed north to orewa picking up my 2nd cousin Carolann on the way (i did meet carolann when she was 2 as used to live in brighton!) So we headed up to orewa...

Woohoo.....back in auckland! So this time i decided to stay in a different YHA - actually to tell you the truth i dialed the wrong number to the YHA so decided that that will do. Anyway, arrived kinda late so by the time i had some dinner i was ready to hit the sack. In my dorm there was a canadian and a girl from uruguay called lorena who i ended up hanging out with the whole time i was there which was loads of fun. So the next day we headed up the sky tower (...

howdy all!!! well just finished my trip of the bay of islands plus the top bit!! Started the day off leaving auckland quite hungover but not feeling too bad. Arrived at Paihia at lunch time so spent the afternoon on a jet boat thing exploring the islands in the bay including going through the famous hole in the rock and a cave thing - was really cool and very beautiful. The next day I headed out to the rainbow warrior to do some diving. Unfortunately my dive...

So i left rotorua in the direction of auckland. It was like a full day trip so arrived in auckland lateish. However, on the bus we stopped at mt manganoui. We had the option to climb this beast of a hill but only had like 1hr15 in which to do so. So anyway i was told it took like 1hr+ to get up and back but i really wanted to do it so there is me panting and puffing as i mr motivator it up this bleeding hill to the top!! It was rather steep actaully it was v stee...

Hellooooo - long time no write i know!! Well let me see.......after the east as trip i headed to smelly rotorua (only smelly cos of the sulphur from the natural geysers etc). So there i went to a maori cultural night called Tamaki. Went with some people from my hostel cassie, mike and matt. It was a real fun evening and we got to see a traditional maori village, some dancing, poi shows, hakas etc. Was a great night and we even got fed traditional maori food. We h...