After spending the night in Auckland we headed up to the bay of islands which is north of Auckland. We managed to get a good double room in a place called the bay adventure which had a spa and swimming pool although it was too cold to use it! We booked on a boat trip the next day which takes you on a tour around the islands and to do dolphin spotting. The boat trip took us around lots of little islands and to the hole in the rock which was basically a huge rock with a tunnel running through it which boats can go through. The water was just so clear and the weather turned out to be lovely and sunny, then we spotted our first dolphins! There was a group of about 6 and they were swimming right under and beside the boat and they were really big! Normally you can swim with them but on this occasion they had some baby dolphins with them and under NZ law you can't swim if they have juveniles with them. Nether the less it was an amazing experience to see them in their natural environment and made our day!

After the boat trip we got dropped off at a place called Russell. Russell used to be quite a lively rowdy place many years ago were sailors used to let their hair down and it has a lot off history to the town. We had some lunch there and walked to a little beach area through the town and even got to see the oldest church in NZ! Afterwards we got a ferry back to the town and Ady seeked out the local gym!

After the bay of islands we headed up to Kaitia which is a small town in the far north. We booked ourselves on a coach trip the next day to take us up the 90 mile beach and around the area. We had been advised by quite a few people not to take our car on the beach as lots of cars have sunk in the quick sand! There were only 10 of us on the coach trip which was nice and our driver was an older guy and he was so funny! He wears a headset and chats to everyone whilst driving to give you a bit of a running commentary about the areas we went to but was cracking a lot of jokes too! On the 90 mile beach we got to see lots more seals that were just sat on the beach and lots of other wildlife. After we left the beach we got to some very large sand dunes were the driver got out some sand boards and we all did some sand boarding down the dunes which was fun but we ended up with sand places we didn't think were possible! We stopped off at a nice beach area to have some lunch then we got to Cape Reigna which is the most northern point in NZ. When we got to the lighthouse which is at the northern point, the sign post which has all the places on (like the one in bluff) was missing! It looked like vandals had ripped off all the places like Tokyo, London, Arctic etc so we were not very happy! That sign post was one of the only reasons why we went here ha!

Afterwards we stopped off at another beach and were lucky enough to see lots of dolphins in the sea near the shore which was great! We had a really good day and got lots of information about the local area from rob the bus driver then we headed back to the hostel to get our weary heads down before setting of the next day for Auckland.

On the way to Auckland we spent the night at a place called Dargaville which is just a small town and doesn't have much going on. We stayed at a backpackers which is an old converted school which was a bit different, it just reminded us of being back in primary school and still had all the blackboards and coat pegs! The next morning we left early for Auckland so that we could get back for Adys appointment at the tattoo shop. The tattoo artist had drawn out some ideas for Ady to look at and he liked the designs so ended up getting quite a big Maori style tattoo on his right upper arm. After 4 hours of pain it was finished and looks really good but he did say it hurt quite a lot!

The next day we met up with one of my Grandad's friends called Donna who had promised to show us around Auckland and get us out of the city! We met up and went to a lovely café for some lunch in a little quaint town then went to the mountain range area that surrounds Auckland. We went on a nice walk through the forest then to a black sand beach were they have a rock that looks like a lions head! We then went to a park called one tree hill that was once an active volcano and was really nice with lots of people jogging and rollerblading! From the top of the hill was a great view of the whole of Auckland which is a lot bigger than you think!

To finish off the day we had a nice drive back to the hostel down the harbour front and the sunset made the skyline look great. We had a great day and it was good to get out of the city so thanks to Donna for looking after us for the day.

We put our car up for sale and made notices for the hostels and I put it on a website and within hours we had quite a bit of interest about it. A guy came to have a look at it and he had just moved here from America. He decided there and then that he wanted to buy it so we ended up selling it the next day to him which was great and we've got our money back which has helped us out loads!

So were currently at the airport on a 5 hour delay to Fiji so I thought I better update the blog while were here! We've had an AMAZING time in New Zealand with the magnificent scenery and lovely people. We've hiked a glacier, snowboarded down a mountain, bathed in lots of hot springs and driven 4500 km!

It's now time to move on to the next part of the shivady experience and we can't wait for a bit of Fiji Paradise!