Pahia is the hub of the Bay of Islands, this is the furthest north we are going on our tour of NZ. The town is on the coast, overlooking some of the 144 islands in the bay. We went sailing for the day onboard "Gungha II" . It was a little choppy, but the sun shone down and we stopped at one island for a walk and a snorkel. The water was cold but we saw a crayfish and we think we saw an octupus in between some rocks, you can poke them to get them to swim...

Warkworth is about an hour north of Auckland, we were heading to the bay of Islands and this was a convenient stop off on the way. It turned out to be a cute little town, we stayed in the local pub which ALWAYS seems to pay off! at about 11pm, the fire alarm sounded, so we duly presented ourselves outside at the fire assembly point. It was quite eerie, as the pub was closed and all the staff had gone home. Then another couple arrived, they where the only other gu...

Just a quick one as I am terribly behind with this blinkin' journal!! After a bumpy flight from Rarotonga, we arrived in Nadi at 3am, got taken to our hotel by the meanest taxi driver ever and went to bed in our room which stunk to high heaven of Toilet Duck. The next day, we arranged a couple of day trips, the first to "Treasure Island", which was a great day out, we felt like the only ones on the island. The sun shone, we saw loads of fish when sn...

Boy, confused was I, we set off at 9am Monday, flew 5 hours and arrived 2pm Sunday due to the international date line. I spent several minutes trying to work out if I was a day older. It was raining when we arrived, but my spirits lifted when we were serenaded in by a man on a little yukelele type guitar. We had a great place to stay right on the beach, on the sunset side of the island. We played "spot the honeymooners". The island is only 32 km round, ...

We arrived shaking into Auckland, having become unaccustomed to anything more than B roads it felt like we were driving into central London. After checking in to our student halls (and my have they come a long way since the Macmillan Halls in Bradford- ensuite and a separate lounge!) we went to the Skytower to look over the city and at a crazy man jumping off the top. We tried to get into the casino but were turned away because of my flip flops. I think it was an...