So, this is it. I'm off. Leaving Mum & Dad at the airport was so distressing, Mum was crying loads and was really emotional saying that last goodbye but I was so stressed out and nervous I don't think I really showed my emotions! Got through security and immediatly rung Emz to freak out, I couldn't really believe I was doing it.. felt insane. Anyway, said goodbye to her as well and hopped on my plane. I was kind of in a baffeled emotional state through the first half of the journey.. excited, nervous, sad, extremely happy.. it was very confusing. So, I just watched all the decent films the plane had to offer and tried to sleep. We stopped over in South Korea for a couple of hours which also went really quick by the time customs had finished with us it was pretty much time to hop on the plane again. I sat down in my seat and had a ruffle through my bag and found a card which I didn't recognise, pulled it out and realised Mummy darling had left me a little something. Stupidly I opened it and read it which immediatly started me balling my eyes out and the poor woman next to me really didn't know what to do.

After approximately 24 hours of travelling I arrived in Auckland WOOHOOOO. Got my bag pretty easy and the realised I had no idea where I was going, so I asked a nice lady and she told me what shuttle to hop on. Once on the shuttle I just kind of had to guess where to get off by looking at my map and seeing street signs and go me, managed to hop off pretty much directly opposite my hostel. When I got there, my room wasn't ready so I kind of sat around doing nothing for a few hours. Within the first hour or so of arriving I nearly lost my passport and all my money.. got a drink from the counter and some internet time and left my bloody travel wallet there. Only realised when I went to check in I didn't have it and in a state of panic rushed back to hope and prey it was there and thank the lords it was! Since then I've never let it leave my side! After what seemed like a million hours I got the pass to my room.. first ever hostel room. It was kind of what I expected but was so jetlagged at this point I pretty much just got into the bed and crashed for about 2 days. When I finally decided to arise from the bed, I took myself on a nice little tour of the city, went up the skytower which was pretty good to get some barings, saw the pier and the main strip of bars/shops and then headed back. Met a lovely girl in my room called Liz and we went down to the pier together where there were lots of activities going on in aid of the rugby world cup. Ended up queing in the rain to go in a massive rugby ball shaped dome. When you got inside you were instructed to lay on the floor and wait.. basically the ceiling and walls turned into some kind of cinema screen which played a little movie about the history of the world cup and stuff, sounds a bit boring but the way they had set it up was awesome.. felt like you were moving or something!

A couple nights later, had my first drunken night out since leaving the UK.. me and Liz were in the room getting ready when these guys who were also in the room came in and started drinking and asked us to join them- they were also with a girl named Flic and we all got on really well and I found out one of the guys had been travelling with a few girls I had been to school with- small bloody world. Anyway, got my first taster of a hostel bar.. to sum up; its dirty, very sticky, CHEAP (hense why you go there) smells a bit funky, has a number of people passed out in the bar or toilets and has some kind of competition going on. Tonight was wet t-shirt comp..so amusing to watch! After a million jager bombs I ended up back in bed and woke up in the morning feeling rather fragile. To cure our monster hangovers, Flic, Liz and I went for a walk and found the fishery and docking part of town and ended up in this amazing seafood diner where I had an awesome risotto and we thought with the sunshine and everything we needed a bottle of white to join us! This was also the point where the girls got me to change my kiwi bus date so I could stay in town for the rugby world cup, so an extra 4 days where now added to me being in Auckland! So glad I decided to stay though, was such a good weekend. The New Zealand rugby team- All Blacks got into the final so town was buzzing. Pretty much all of Auckland got sectioned off.. roads no longer existed, the whole city centre was just crowds upon crowds of people. Was amazing. We spent our rugby finals in an Irish bar which kind of turned into our local (we were in there basically every day) And they had a live band and face painters running around and as we knew one of the barman our drinks were awesomely cheap. Everyone kicked off when the All Blacks won- 'We are the champions' by Queen played a million times and everyone was so drunkenly happy! Walking back to the hostel took forever because of the amount of people... All macdonalds ques were like out the door- I've just never ever, seen SO many people in one place.

After a weekend of celebrating as if we were kiwi's, it was time for me to depart with my Auckland buddies and hop on the big green bus. I was hungover when I first got on the bus which turns out to be a suitable state to be in and was so nervous. Waiting for the bus to come and slowly more and more people kept showing up who were clearly hopping on as well, so many people were with at least one other person as well which made me start thinking they would all be really clicky and I wouldn't blend in with anyone, from sitting on that bench waiting for the bus I just remember seeing a girl with really awesome Asian trousers, 2 blonde chicks, a guy who I thought looked French wearing a bright red top hat, and the couple who were talking to me who were called Lucy & Max (I thought they were a couple, turns out they were just buddies who met in Fiji and happened to be hopping on the bus at the same time.) So, on the bus I got still stupidly nervous. Our first stop was on Mount Eden in Auckland which looks down on the city and I remember thinking this is my chance to go and talk to people but I was still so nervous.. Saw a petite blonde girl who looked like she would be nice so kind of went and stood by her and started talking to her- Jess. When we hit our next stop which was Catherdral Cove I tagged along with her and her pal Rosie to go on the walk. We walked down to this enclosed beach which was gorgeous- I thought it was going to be typical kiwi weather so had on way too many clothes on concidering it decided to be boiling hot. Our final stop of the day was at Hot Water Beach- literally a hostel (not like the ones I had been in before.. this one was actually really nice!) on a beach, when you dig up the sand when the tide is out you can make little spas which fill up with hot water, not just hot, like BOILING hot water. Anyway, we arrived and I was in a room with 2 girls who were travelling together- Ally & Amy and a guy who's name I can't remember. Everyone was heading to the beach while the sun was still up so I joined them and loads of us ended up sitting in a big circle on the beach all awkwardly starting to make conversation. Then the guy in the red hat (wasn't French, was English) suggested we all play a round of 'touch rugby'. Now.. I knew I'd be s***e so didn't want to embarras myself but didn't want to be the boring one who doesn't join in, so I ended up embarrising myself being complete pants at a very simple game. When the sun went down, we all headed back to make some dinner and then started drinking. The tide wasn't going to be out until around midnight so we had to keep ourselves entertained and turned out to be an awesome way to get to know each other.. We somehow started playing the cardboard box game (you have a box, everyone picks it up using just their mouth without hands touching the floor and each round you rip more and more of the box off so it gets shorter and shorter..) I remember sitting with Ally and dreading how bad I was going to be with all these people watching.. turned out I was pretty good so that was all sorted. Was so funny watching everyone really struggle to stay in the game and start taking pictures, obviously we were drinking as well so by the time midnight came we were all pretty happy together. Wondered down and it was pitch black, got the boys to dig us the little pools and was in for quite a shock when we realised how hot the water was.. We burnt our feet. So basically there was a massive group of people all in their 20s running around a pitch black beach in swim wear trying to find a cold bit of sand, hopping and screaming when we got a hot shock. Eventually, we got it right and all layed in our pools drinking and talking before deciding it was time to head back and go to bed.. (by this I mean have a shower and sit out on the deck playing never have I ever for a few more hours)

Next day, we were back on the bus and on our way to Waitomo, which is where the famous glow worm caves are. Got to go black water rafting, Jess was the only one on the bus in my group so we kind of stuck together. We were made to put on these damp, oversized wetsuits which made us look really sexy and then grab a big rubber ring. First thing we had to do was practice our waterfall jumps- basically when in the caves we would come across lots of mini waterfalls and had to jump off them backwards in our rubber rings. Practiced our jumps and realised how bloody freezing the water was but was so much fun, it kind of took it away from the cold. The entrance to the caves was TINY, and when we got inside we all grouped together and had to switch on the lamps on our helmets, looked like a miner! The rafting took about 3 hours through these caves which was a variety of climbing over bits of rock, jumping waterfalls and floating in our rings.. There was one point where we grabbed a rope and just layed backwards so we were facing the top of the cave and all switched our lights off so we were in pitch black and we could see thousands of tiny little lights which were the glow worms- looked like stars in a night sky. Then, the bloody instructers played a game with us where we had to find our way out the cave in the dark.. lots of bumping into rocks but eventually got out and into a nice warm shower. After all the excitment from the rugby and the bus so far I needed a little nap and ended up sleeping until the next morning to realise I'd missed out on an epic night down in the bar. GUTTED. I actually thought, oh no everyones bounded loads last night and now I'm a little loner.. so I just made sure I got myself back in there by immediatly going and sitting at the back of the bus with all the lot I'd got on well with at the beach...

Auckland was amazing! Met some really nice girls on the first couple of days and after 1 or 2 very drunken nights we got pretty close so spent most my time with them. The first couple of days were pretty dull I was just trying to get over the horrific plane journey.. but on the third day I took myself up to the sky tower which gives a really good 360 view of Auckland, then went off and had lunch in a nice little park. That night went out with the girls and few lads we met in the hostel and got extremely drunk! Cured our hangover the next day by going to Auckland fish market for lunch (and carried on drinking with a bottle of wine) and I had the most amazing mixed fish risotto! Delish. After lunch we went to the pub where one of the boys we met was working and had a reasonably early night! The day after was the Friday and was the Wales v Australia rugby match so we started in the same pub from day before- O'Hagans kind of became a local for me in Auckland! We were there from about 2 in the afternoon and the place was absolutly packed! Such a good atmosphere with loads of Welshies singing away! That was an exceptionally random night where I ended up out with an Irish dude until 7 in the morning because I had no hostel to stay in and my friend who I was going to steal her bed for the night decided to disappear! Managed to get hold of her in the end though so happy days. The next day we all felt rough as but one of the girls wanted to do a bungy jump (Liz) so me and Flic went along and watched her and it was immense.. scared me up big time for when I do mine! After she braved the bridge she had a concert thing to go off to and as we knew the rugby final was the next day, we decided a tame night would be best so me and Flic went to the cinema and saw 'Midnight in Paris' DO NOT WATCH IT.. horrific film. Boring.. should of saved my money and gone to bed! Never mind. Next day was Sunday and was CRAZY!!! Auckland were holding the rugby final which was All Blacks v France and it was just insane. Atmosphere was buzzing like mad, so many people in the street literally half of Auckland was closed down to accomodate everyone.. Piers had loads of 'fan zones' with lots of different things set up..so good. So me and the girls got our space in the pub and basically stayed there all night drinking, watching the match and cheering on the mighty All Blacks!! Monday was all of our final days in Auckland and it was a very good one, there was a massive parade down the middle of Auckland where the All Blacks actually came down and said hello to their fans, along with lots of other bits and bobs which was happenng! Then me and Flic decided to go and do a bungy swing.. basically you sit in this cage type thing and get flung in the air on an elasticated type band.. AMAZING! My first taste of extreme activity and I loved it. After that we met a couple of Liz's friends in a bar for a quick drink as we planned to have an early night to catch buses ect in the morning.. One drink turned into many a drink and didn't end up getting home until about 4 in the morning..opps. So, the next morning I had to be up and at the bus stop to catch my kiwi experience bus at 8.30- not fun. But soon as I got on the bus it was all gravy. First of all we got taken up to Mt Eden which is the volcano in Auckland and is the highest point so got to see amazing views including seeing Eden Park Stadium (where world cup was held). After that, went over to Cathedral Cove which was a gorgeous beach- had to walk 45 minutes to get to it from the bus but was so worth it even though we only got 15 minutes on it before having to hop back on the bus. But clear sky, clear water, lovely waterfalls and the cove were awesome. Our final stop that day was to Hot Water Beach where we stayed in a pretty decent hostel. A big group of us went down to the beach straight away, had some drinks and had a game of touch. Once the sun went in we went back to the dorms, got changed, had dinner ect and all sat out on the deck playing drinking games which constited of the cardboard box game- having a box and having to pick it up with your mouth without touching the floor with your hands and each round the box is made smaller and smaller- very amusing. Once we were all suitably drunk we headed back to the beach- basically at low tide (around midnight) you take a shovel and dig out the sand to make your own little pools bcos the volcanic something heats up the water. It was actually incredible- the sand burnt your feet if you wernt on the right bit, steam coming up out of the ground and once the boys had dug us a massive hole we all got in and carried on drinking and chatting. It was so warm and lovely.. literally like being in a hot tub on the beach. So that was that, today we came over to Waka something (I'm not good with names) and went on a trek around an old railway track which was pretty cool and then got to our hostel. After about half hour of being at the hostel it was time to be taken to the caves of Wakito - something like that anyway! And did a 3 hour black water rafting activity. Basically your given a wet suit and a rubber ring and you go underground with a tourch on your head and float through the caves- also got to see all the glow worms which live in the caves which was pretty awesome.. literally looked like the night sky!! Anyway.. thats that so far. Will try give more brief updates soon!!! Chow x