So I spent most of the day travelling to arrive in Auckland where Kat was waiting to greet me in the airport!! Bumped into a girl at the airport that knew someone i went to school with and turns out we both went to her birthday party when we were about 15!!! What a small world!!

Anyway spent the first day exploring Auckland and if i'm honest- my first impressions of NZ were that it was cold and i didn't like it!!! We chilled for a few days in the evening- goining to a pub for hot chocolate where they looked at us as if we were mad!! lol.

We did a massive round Auckland hike, alll the way to the Kiwi office and then the Auckland museum which had a Volcano erruption room which was by far the coolest part of the whole museum!!

We left Auckland on the Kiwi bus heading for Mecury Bay where we stayed in a hostel called Turtle Cove- which was more like someone's house than a hostel which was so nice!!! Spent the night getting to know our bus mates with a few drinks.

Next stop- Rotorua- the smelliest city due to the sulphur pools all around it!!! Had a few days here though- and us girls went on a shopping trip for some warm clothes!!! Also went white water rafting down a 7m waterfall which was very scary!!! but also very cool!!! Went to a Maori cultural evening which was amazing!! They put on a special show for us at the beginning and 4 chiefs were chosen from the public to be greeted by the Maori warriors dancingand darting towaards them- quite scary but very cool to watch!!

After Roturua we started the EAST AS bus, first stop Tatapouri- where I fed stingrays- which was Amazing!!! wanted to shark cage dive too but weather was too bad so that sucked!! Spent the night drinking and toasting marshmallows on the bonfire right on the beach!!!

Next stop- some random place on the East coast that is the first place in the world to see the sun rise!! We went on a horse trek which was really good to start off with but then Marisa's horse chucked her off so the rest was bit rubbish as she was in shock and terrified of getting bk on a horse!! Watched Mamma Mia at the hostel and caught up on some sleep!!

Went to Te Kaha the next day where we climbed 700 steps to reach the lighthouse- most easterly point in NZ and made oyur way to our homestay for the night which had a hot tub on the beach!! We wrote a song (tradition of everyone that stays there) to the tune of This Sex Is On Fire by Kings of Leon and called it "This Hot Tub is on Fire"!!!

We stopped off in the hot river on our way bk which was gorgeous although came out smelling of sulphur!!!

Taupo

Arrived here and within 2 hours had committed myself to jumping out of a plane at 12,000ft!!!!! how crazy am i!!!! I was so scared and i closed my eyes as the bloke i was strapped to shoved me out of the plane!!! And i would not stop screaming!!!!! It's just as well there was no sound on the DVD i got!! It was beautiful though as the sun was setting when we jumped and after i got over my initial fear of plumetting to my death i quite enjoyed it!!! lol

Spent 3 days in Taupo as they mucked up our buses and we literally did nothing!! it was bliss!!!

River Valley- was in the middle of nowhere- stopped at "Gollum's waterfall" in the second Lord of The Rings film on our way but it started snowing so missed out on the most of the walks!!! River Valley was a 22bed dorm so i hardly got any sleep whatsoever!! did have a swing you had to sit on a haul yourslef across the river on though which was quite cool!!!

Arrived in the capital!!! Wellington. We visited Te Papa museum which was a very cool museum with a massive colossal squid on display that some fiahermen caught when trying to catch fish- it had eaten the fish attached to the line and not let go when the line started to get pulled bk in!!! Also went to Parliament- which was small but free also!! And went up Mount Vistoria with our decorated Easter Eggs to roll down the hill in (Scottish) Easter tradition!! lol. Visited the local Kiwi bars in Wellington- which was nice as made a change to our regular backpackers bars and had a couple of very late nights before grtting up at 7am to get the ferry to the South island!!