On our way back down to Auckland we stopped off on the way at North Harbour rugby stadium for the first super 14 rugby game of the season between the blues and the hurricanes (Auckland v Wellington)! We had really good seats and the atmosphere was amazing as the hurricanes beat the blues in their first game at home!We headed to Erics apartment in the city centre where we all went for dinner and ice cream to catch up! After our food had settled we then headed to t...

After a night in a service station on our way up North we arrived at Whangerei where there was apparently one of the most spectacular waterfalls in NZ....It didnt let us down so within minutes we'd changed and were swimming in the pool at the bottom of the falls! After climbing our way up the path to the top Rich was quick to spot a rope swing into the river at the top of the falls and was soon joining in with the local mauoris seeing how high he could swing! He ...

We headed for Waitomo, a place famous for its glow worms and caving. So on our first night we decided to grab the torch and walk into the forest to see the glow worm spectical...Within 10 meters Rich was adament that a cat was watching us from a tree upabove, then Shelly started thinking about the film 'The Decent'. Its a good job the glow worms were awesome, they were tiny and in some places there were hundreds of them, because otherwise between shelly freaking ...

Rotorua is officially the smelliest place we have ever been, it is apparently something to do with sulphur but we werent convinced!!! It is this sulphur that makes all the thermal parks and spa's around the area, the sights are fantastic....it just a shame about the smell! So after a day of walking around with our hands on our noses we started tO get used to it and had a lovely night camping by the 'blue lake'. It was a gorgeous small lake where we swam and had a...

Lake Taupo is the largest lake in all NZ...its so big it looks like the sea! So after spending a night by the lake on the beach we woke up, had a swim and went for a wander around Taupo. We soon discovered !!!! Now while we did look like geeky Japanese tourists they were so much fun, so after mastering doing doughnuts and going backwards we were satisfied that they were worth looking stupid for! After an afternoon on the beach by the lake we got chatting to some ...