I decided the book the Stray bus tour which takes me round allof the North ansd South Island. It cost me NZ$1200 (£545) of my hard earned bucks so it better be worth it!

I was picked up by the Stray bus at about 8 this morning to head up to the ay of Islands and Cape Reinga. The Bay of Islands is one of the prettiest places in NZ (or so I'm told) with turquoise water and about 150 islands with beautiful sandy beaches.

The samll town of Russel is the birthplace of European colonisation and was the first Capital of NZ. It was here that the treaty of Waitangi was signed between the Maori and the British Crown. In the English version of the treaty the British were given sovereignty but not in the Maori version which has led the problems of race relations in NZ since.

Paihia is where we were staying and if you love water sports then you'll love Paihia. Everyone onboard the bus did the bay cruise. There are over 150 islands with eautiful sandy beaches and crystal clear waters. We seen the famous `hole in the rock' and because the sea was calm we passed though it twice. We stopped at an island and climbed one of the hills and had a beautiful vies of all the bays and golden beaches.

On the way back to port we found a pod of Dolphins but unfortunately they had ypung so we couldn't go into the water to swim with them.

The hostel we were all staying at had it's own bar and was ome of the main night spots in town. It was a great night and was a welcome change from the no alcohol hostels in the US.

Our bus driver came out on the piss with us, she is a big girl and is called hoover. She says she's called hoover because she can down a pint in 3 seconds but we all have our doubts if thats how she was named the Hoover. A few of us challenged her to a drinking sontest and we all totally embarassed by her. She knocked everyone of them back in 3-4 seconds!