November 6th

Many hours of airports flying and overly smiley Qantas staff, although their food is much better than BA, and we hit Auckland…. Bit of a bounce but we hit it. We had to go through some ridiculous Bio Hazard Zone - they seem a little paranoid here about bringing in new species and food!? However that done, we headed out into the great outdoors... these guys are so friendly! Fresh of the plane we encountered nothing but smiles and long stories about what to do. Eventually we found the correct bus to our hostel - Verandahs - where we were told the prostitute outside was 'extra security' and hit the sack… it was 2am after all.

November 7th

So tired. So tired! Walking about Auckland town we went to a few parks and did the whole Tower sight seeing thing… 197 metres up was quite impressive but Auckland is a stop over for the rest of the stuff this place has to offer so we arranged our Magic bus tickets and quizzed the others in the hostel about our itinerary whilst also meeting some of the 'quirky' fellow travellers and their cuddly toy companions (Americans huh!)November 8th Campbell, the hostel owner met us at 6.30am to take us to the bus stop… I told you they are all friendly here! The bus' gear stick broke off in the drivers hand… nice… so we were delayed but eventually made it to Pirhia which is in the middle of the Bay of Islands. Our hostel called Mousetrap appropriately had a 15ft plaster cast mouse on the roof, but upon a tour of the place pleased to report no further mice. What is it with Germans over here!? They're everywhere! Anyway having removed their beach towels from the dining room table we set about destroying some steak on the BBQ prepared by Chef Webley... delicious.

November 9th

Mike was to be our captain and a 65ft sailing yacht called Ghunghra was our vessel for the day in a trip around some of the Islands. There were only three of us paying guests so we had to help out with the rigging, steering etc but what a ball. I made sure I kept my eyes on the horizon in some of the larger waves when we got further out to sea, but happy to report no sea sickness the whole day. We threw anchor at a beauty spot where only one other boat had ventured so it felt quite isolated, which makes a nice change being a backpacker pushed around on buses. We jumped into a small motor boat and headed for land to do a walk up to the highest peak and take in the amazing view... which surprise surprise, was amazing. That done we collected some cracked shells for jewellery and made our way back to the boat for a spot of swimming... oh my lord that water was cold! This is supposed to be the bloomin' Pacific Ocean! Anyway having reduced our body temperatures down to an all time low we got back on to greet our 'warm shower' as promised in the brochure... it was a hose pipe on the back of the yacht.... but it was warm! A sport of lunch later and Mike presented us with our necklaces made from the shells we'd collected... how quaint! On the way back we waved to the local millionaire who owns half of New Zealand's wine production - Montana Wines (Mike mixes in good circles) and made our way back. On the way back 'el capitano' asked us if we were worried about the size of the waves which were admittedly getting bigger, we replied "no Mike we've got you and you've sailed around the world twice' to which he replied 'I'm glad some of us aren't worried' - just what you need from the captain! We made it though, and were dropped off in Russell (the original capital of NZ) and had a pint in NZ's oldest pub... we're so British!

November 10th

Awakening to blistered noses from the previous day's sailing we realised the NZ sun means business, even hidden behind clouds. We set off for an 8km walk to some mediocre water falls on (lets face it, nothing will ever beat Vic Falls!) with factor 50+ caked all over us even though the forest meant we never saw the sun. That afternoon we were supposed to go for a walk through the forest on the other side of town but only managed a game of Jenga and Jim Rummy... not every day can be exciting and energetic as the previous! but the scallops and steak I BBQ'ed for dinner will never be forgotten.

November 11th

Back to Auckland it was, via the Kauri forests of the North where we were introduced to some trees wider than flats in London... about 10 metres wide... these boys were big. But don't worry guys these impressive trees were mostly cut down by the English to build our great fleet so the locals only really have a handful of the seriously big trees to enjoy... good old England. Back in Auckland we ran (walked quickly) up Mount Eden - a cool volcano that overlooks the whole of Auckland and took yet more panoramic photos of places we will fail to identify upon returning home.

November 12th

Off to Whitianga which is only on the itinerary because we had to go, we visited a places called hot water pool (the NZs are so adventurous with their names... North Island, South Island, Street With a View etc) guess what is on this beach... hot water! Well when you dig down slightly with spades the water gets so hot you burn yourself due to underground geothermal activity being only 1km from the surface... so we all burnt ourselves as the tide approached rapidly. That done we moved on to Cathedral Cove (the location of one of the Narnia films) in a scenic walk and then onto the middle of nowhere that is Whitianga. A few beers were had along with a great burger and stories of our guide hiring a helicopter and automatic rifles in a government contract to 'manage' the numbers of goat on some of the remote Islands... it sounded very Apocalypse Now!

November 13th

Whitianga behind us we headed for Waitomo the caving capital of NZ where we partook in black water rafting... a sport invented here that essentially does what it says on the tin rafting in the dark in caves! Our rafts were inflatable rings and damn it was cold - colder than the Pacific and that WAS cold! A few tight squeezes later and we found daylight once again. Our lodgings for the night was a family campsite so we had an early night (via the bar) in anticipation of the 'heated' pool the following day.

November 14th

If that pool was heated I'm a monkeys uncle (and Georgia is no monkey). All the water over here is so cold! So we went for a quick walk instead up a local hill and then sat by the pool too scared to get in it. That afternoon it was off to Rotoroa and the Maori experience... what an experience! We saw them do a hukka - which actually means 'dance' learnt a little about how they live in huts still (me thinks these were actors and in fact they do not live in mud huts anymore - this is not Africa after all!) Then we had a traditional Maori dinner which closely resembled a roast dinner with mussels (the seafood variety) but it was very tasty and more importantly 'all you can eat' so we ate until we felt ill. On the way home the driver went round a round about five times until we sang his Maori song loud enough for him to be satisfied, learnt the Maori for McDonalds and then bed.

November 15th

Off to Taupo and the day of adrenalin rushes. First off was a quick stop at a big bridge... wow! Then we went to a geothermal park called Wai Au Tapu where a geyser erupts every day at 10.15am on the dot, helped by a friendly park ranger with 80grams of soap. It was pretty impressive with 15m of hot water being thrown into the air. Suitable wowed we made our way around the very smelly park looking at all the volcanic activity on the surface - bubbling mud pools etc. Then we stopped at a rope park where Nikki did a trapeze jump 15 metres up in the air off a telegraph pole she had to climb to get to the trapeze. We both then managed a swing jump where I hate to admit my language was far worse than Nikki's. My excuse was that I was first and therefore had no idea what to expect i.e. a 10 metre drop before the rope tightened up and swung me instead of dropping me. That done we visited the Huka Falls, which apparently could fill three Olympic swimming pools in seven seconds with the water flow... what a strange stat to have as your big shout! Then Nikki was whisked off to the Taupo Tandem Skydiving centre where she was thrown out of a plane at 12,000ft. Strangely enough the guy that jumped with her was the very same guy I did my last, fateful, jump with in Spain five years ago... a very small world. Full of adrenalin, Nikki landed and proceeded to tell me it was 'cool'. She's so calm under pressure. We have the DVD so don't threat, we can bore you with all the details again later! Adrenalin sports all done for the day we crashed at Rainbow backpacker lodge absolutely knackered.

November 16th

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! I set the alarm for 6.20am and not 5.20am, so we missed the bus to the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Instead we ran around trying to get a private car up there eventually admitting defeat and watched NZ crumple Ireland's defence at 7am our time and headed for the Hidden Valley... more geothermal activity with smelly bubbling mud and smoking geysers.

November 17th

Wellington here we come and our last day in the North Island. On our way down mother nature stopped us from seeing all the Lord of the Rings scenery by laying on some fog and cloud but hey we've been pretty lucky with the weather thus far. A quick stop off at the top of Wellingtons highest hill for yet more panoramic photos and we settled into our quite hostel at the top of another hill. We went for a lovely walk in the Botanic Gardens having been bored senseless by their 'amazing' museum called Te Papa (we either weren't in the right frame of mind or that place was rubbish!) oh and also bumped into Kathryn from our Africa tour on her way home from work (she lives here), I told you it was a small world! The Botanic gardens is a lazy man's heaven... you get the tram up the steep hill then the entire five mile walk is all down hill... brilliant. Upon returning to the hostel having had a lovely Italian, we found a massive party going on outside our bedroom door... so much for a quiet night's sleep before the early get up to catch the 8.25am ferry to the south Island!Nikki got stroppy with the party leftovers at 2am as they decided to play guitar outside our door (they had no music because I had turned it off a few hours previously). So with no sleep we headed for the ferry terminal... (continued in New Zealand South Island)