Auckland - We arrived in New Zealand on 22 April 2008. We had decided the easiest way to see New Zealand was by a bus called the Magic Bus. Basically the bus picks you up and drops you off at your next destination and also books your accommodation along the way, so everthing was done for us. All we had to do was sit back and relax!

Auckland is known as the city of the sails and you can understand why when you're near the harbour. Auckland is just like any other city, there wasn't really much to see and do. We did get to visit the sky tower and also Mount Eden which is meant to be the best view of Auckland and it was a nice view! Or as the Kiwis say it was "Sweet as"!

Waitomo - Here we visited the famous glow worm caves, whilst visiting the caves we decided to go Black Water Rafting. So we had to get into wet suits which was a work out in itself. It wasn't actually what we expected, we were given tubes and we had to float through the caves in complete darkness and in freezing cold water all we could see were the glow worms all above us, they were amazing. The rafting was really good as we had a good group and some unexpected drops!

Rotorua - Next stop was Rotorua, we stayed here for three nights. The first thing we noticed was the bad smell of the place it was like rotten eggs, this is due to the release of gas from the hot springs in the ground. On our first night we went to a Maori Ceremony where we learned of the Maori traditions and rituals. This was a really good night.

Next day we went Zorbing, this consisted of getting into a big rubber ball filled with water and rolling down a hill, very similar to a washing machine. It was brillant fun except it was over so fast! The following day we decided to go White Water Rafting, this was really scary as there was a 7m waterfall that we had to raft down, lucky for us we all remained in the raft! Rafting was good fun.

Taupo - Next stop Taupo, it's a really pretty town on the shores of a lake. We stayed here for two nights and had some good fun here. It was here we decided to do a sky dive, i don't what got into us. The sky dive was really scary but such a great buzz! It was absolutely brilliant!

Napier - Was a very nice town built around the bay. We got to visit a winery here called Mission Winery where we got to taste about ten different types of wine, very nice. It was a shamed we couldn't stay here longer as it really seemed like a really nice town.

Wellington - The capital of New Zealand and next to the harbour. We only stayed here for a night so we could get the ferry across to the South Island. City itself was nice and great for shopping. But again just another city!