And so after the bustling smells and sights of Asia we arrive back in the western world of New Zealand. Via an 8 hour flight to Sydney (nice airport thats about all we can tell you) and then on a 2 hour flight to Auckland. Plus all the jet lag and the fact that we are sitting on the bottom of the world we were some what confused to the whereabouts of time and dates. So the first day/afternoon/evening was spent retrieving mental and physical alertness by the aid of sleeping for a vast amout of time! So upon the arrival of what we think we can call the first or third day? We got ourselves booked on a "city orientation tour", which was run by a backpackers travel company and was also free!! So we get picked up by a hungover bloke called Nate, and his mate Uncle George (who is rather huge and the bus driver). First stop The skytower (which is the tower to the left of the mast in the above picture), when you see your leaflet for the tour it says "Guaranteed to see someone jump the Skytower!!!". What they didn't say was that it was going to be someone off the bus that you're sat on. And you guessed it that lucky person was me!!!! Now the only down side to my $200 free fall off the top of New Zealand's skytower is that it's 193m tall and I ate something I shouldn't have in Singapore, no more said about that!!! So I'm standing on the top of this building somewhat clenched after going up in the lift which has a glass bottom... nice to help with the atmosphere maybe?... being told to jump off, only being held by a steel cable probably 5mm thick. It was amazing to do especially as it was free and would definitely do it again. So after surviving my plummet to concrete, we moved on to the quayside for a drink and a helpful (for the tour guide) coffee shop and boat tour promotion. After which we moved on to Auckland harbour bridge - the same as Sydney's - but smaller!! Then up to an extinct volcano, followed by a pub lunch then back to our hostel. We hung around here having a drink with our slightly more sober guide chatting about our plans in NZ. He recommended a few places to visit/stay/work etc and also told us where to look for a van. Glad we asked now! Our next day was spent mosying around the shops in Auckland. Nothing too stressful - or expensive - get in and get out, that's our motto here! We did head over to Mission Bay in the evening for probably the worst pizza I've ever eaten. We're really missing the food of Asia already :o( Sunday was devoted to bagging ourselves a van - so we made the dreaded trip to the "K" road in search of the back packers car market. Luckily we're used to the sights and sounds of Soho, so a few early morning transvetite prostitutes were no bother!!!! Our day was a complete success as we found ourselves our wheels - and more importantly - bed, for the next 9 months - a Mazda Bongo Brawny! To be perfectly honest i've never heard of such a van before, but then with my car knowledge that's not really saying all that much! We had the necessary checks done on it, sorted out the boring stuff (insurance, AA cover....) and parked it in their garage over night (cheaper than outside the hostel, safer too). We headed back to the hostel for our free evening "meal", hmm, times are tough! Before picking the van up we had a few issues to sort out - namely that immigration had stamped my passport different to Richard's - a 6 month visa at that. After locating the office and speaking with a very helpful - and bemused - lady, she imformed that not only was mine well and truly wrong, but so was Richard's. If we had of left the country on the visas we had, they wouldn't have let us back in, great news! So that fixed we headed up to collect our van. We made a few pit stops around Auckland (food, beer, a new tyre - the usual!) and with that all done we opened up our road map and headed off to the famous shores of Raglan.....