After spending a rather lenghty time in the South Island (almost two months) I have been whizzing around the North island for the past 10 days. The North island lacks the outstanding beauty of the South but is a pretty place all the same and is far more populated than the South island. There is a very big contigent of Ploynesian and Maori people in the North island so we have learned a lot about their culture, visited a Maori Village in a place called Rotura they performed their native Haka which is their tribal dance and put on a great performance. My first port of call in The North island was Wellington also known as windy Wellington and this is the capital of New Zealand. I stayed here for 5 days, visitied the Botannical Gardens, walked to the top of Mount Victoria to check out the views over looking the whole city. I did a day trip to Maitu Soames island which is a former Prisoner of war camp and Qurantine station that has only recently been open to the public and is a very beautiful island. Other than that visited lots of gallerys and the Te Papa museum. Next stop was Taupo where we were to do our sky dive. Taupo has the largest lake in New Zealand and this is where we did our sky dive over! The sky dive was excellent, jumping out of a plane from 12,000 feet was pretty awesome a totally different sensation to a bungee! I was freefalling for 45 seconds and then the parachute came into effect and we decenced slowly back to land, enjoying the views for 5 minutes. Oh and we all wore different colour wigs so our videos are really funny! Next stop was Rotorua which is also named Sulphur city it has the most energetic thermal activity in the country with bubbling mud pools, hot springs and very very evil smells!! We spent half a day at the Polynesian spas and all of the spas are heated by the volcanic acivity and the heat in one of the spas was 40 degrees and I only lasted 5 minutes in that one it sapped all my energy! We did an activity called "Zorbing" which is where you climb into a massive rubber ball, they throw in loads of water and you are rolling down a hill inside this ball being flung all over the place, it was like being in a washing machine and we laughed the whole way down!! Did blackwater rafting and you basically raft sitting in a rubber ring inside these glowworm caves and the only light to assist you is the one on your head, it was freezing cold I thought my hands were going to fall off but a good experience all the same! From Auckland we went up to the Bay of Islands where we spent 2 days and it gorgeous up there, did a day trip to the furthest point of the North Island (Cape Reinga) drove along 90 mile beach, sunbathed for an hour and then we were taken to some huge sandunes where we walked to the top and sandboarded down them, it was such good fun!! The walk up was a killer my little heart was on the verge of giving in!! Now I'm back in Auckland, my mate Geoff and I have booked the Auckland Bridge bungee for tomorrow (we are going to do a tandem and jump off together and get our heads dunked in the water)..will prob be the last bungee I ever do so may as well make the most of it!! I fly to LA on the same day, I am so excited. My love affair with New Zealand has come to a halt and I have loved every minute of it, has turned me into a right adrenaline junkie! I meet my parents in Vegas on the 30th for some luxury and from there we fly to San Fran so I am well looking forward to seeing them and staying in nice hotels for 10 days...yipeee!! I am sad to be leaving the Land of the long white cloud ( The Maori translation for New Zealand) but I am all geared up for some California Dreamin...!!! Will be in touch from the States.. Cazza XX