Well this is the 6th and penultimate country of my travels - New Zealand!

I arrived in Auckand with very very little knowledge of the country. Didn't know how to get to the city from the airport and didn't have any accommodation booked. Turns out you should really book beds in advance in NZ, especially at the hight of summer! Still after a few hostels I managed to find a bed.

The first few days were just sorting myself out. Getting transport around the country sorted, getting an NZ SIM and other boring stuff. Managed to do the coast to coast walk in from Onehunga to Auckand which is the narrowest part of the country apparently. A really nice walk with good views over the city, just a shame when it rains halfway through!

Soon enough I started my trip around the country using Magic busses. I was heading north of Auckland. First stop was diving at the Poor Knights islands, stunning diving. Really clear water and loads of awesome fish to be seen :-) probably my second best dive to the SS Yongala in Oz.
Next up was a night in Pahia which is next to the grounds of Waitangi, this is where the treaty signing over the land of NZ to the British took place. From there you could do a day trip to Cape Reinga, the northern tip of NZ where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet. We also got to sandboard down some massive dunes which was a great laugh. A few toes with a lot less skin on them, but still well worth it! By the end of the day we'd swum in both the Tasman and the Pacific, not every day you can do that.
After Pahia was a stop at a small town called Hokianga. I was supposed to go on a cultural tour of the area including Kane Mahuta the god of the forest (a 1600 year old Kauri tree). But it was the day of flooding in the north island so the trip was cancelled. Instead I spent a day bone carving where I was given a bone, a pencil, a dremmel and files/sandpaper. After about 4 hours the end result was a unique bone carving (will put pics up on fbook when I'm next on a PC).

Then it was time to head back to Auckland for one night before cruising around the Coromandel region...