We had originally planned to do the north island in a campervan but we hit a small snag in the fact that mine and pats credit cards could not afford the bond to cover us if there were to be an accident!! So after that I was ready to get out of teh cold and fly to Fiji but again we were unfortunate as there were no spaces on any earlier flights. We then decided to fly to Auckland from Christchurch and maybe get a car and drive to either waitoma or Rotorua. Our plan was to go to Waitoma first but ended up not knowing where to go so we just ended up in Rotorua instead. It was a nice little town but smelt a little of sulphur (eggs) because of the Geysers i believe. We met up with some more friends randomly again as we always seem to do and went for a swim in the thermally heated (by the earth) swimming pool was very hot. In the night i was luckily to meet up with a huge fan of mine Melissa and Sven who used to work at the hotel. They both sound like they are doing very well and were very kind and put us up for the night in their very nice house and fed us a huge amount of omelet. They also took us around Rotorua allowing us to do a monster truck track which was absolutly crazy the thing can virtually go up vertical walls and drive in a diagonal manner just wow! Me and ryan also did this 4x4 safaris which was also immense we took turns to drive off road through deep water filled trenches and up and down really steep slopes. I was lucky enough to do this bit where you line up your tires down this 10m 10 degree angle slope where you have to put your hand brake up and keep your foot on the brake HARD and someone pushes you was quite insane. I dont actually know how we didnt roll it as so many people have done apparently many people come out of it 3 grand in debt. We also did another luge in atroucious conditions was pouring but Melissa turned out to be a lugeing machine and won every race i honestly do not know how she did it she was lightning. Sven came a cropper unfortunatly and ripped clothing as well as his arm Pat tells me that his luge flipped which sounds like the great Ayrten Senner crash of 1994. Afte rthis day of fun we went out with Melissa and Svens riends who were really funny and after a few drinks we were all really sad and watched this cheesy music channel swappin stories about the 80s etc (i had none) Th enext day we headed back to Auckland after a final goodbye to Melissa and Sven thanking them for their 5* hospitality. We gave our car back in one piece and next stop Fiji/sun and beach.