AUCKLAND TO RAGLAN: I managed to get up early for the bus leaving at 08:00, but still, in usual style managed to end up rushing down for it through fear of it leaving without me. I felt that I had seen all I wanted to see in Auckland and I had planned my time on the trip so tightly that I could afford any more days to lose. I had to be on that bus, or the knock on effect would mean that I had to change my flight (again) to Singapore which was not an option. Fortunately, the bus was late as we were waiting on a girl who appeared to have not turned up. We waited around for 10 minutes or so, until a flustered English girl stumbled on the bus looking slightly worse for wear. I could picture myself doing exactly the same thing and it soon became apparent that her tardiness was due to a heavy night out in the backpackers bar. She sat down next to me as I shuffled some of my things out of the way to make room for her and you could see the nightmare of a hangover in her eyes. I knew we would get along well, but had no idea that we would become travel companions for quite as long as we did. She introduced herself as Christa. Along the way I also got to know some of the other ''bus mates'', namely Sabrina & Jessica (German twins, both adorable), Ashling and Andrew (Dublin couple, one loud one deadly quiet), Derek (bloke from Cork, solo traveller and adrenaline junkie), Sandra (Dutch girl, solo traveller with a great singing voice), Helen (English, solo traveller much admired by the driver) and Sarah (English, solo traveller who won a competition). Our driver was called ''Little G''!! Along the way to Raglan we first drove up to a viewpoint over Auckland which was actually at the top of an extinct volcano, with a big dip in the middle. We all got out and took photos, saying goodbye to the city we had just left, knowing that we would not be back for some time, a little excited about the adventure which lay ahead. A couple of hours down the road, we stopped off at a supermarket and bought some groceries for lunch before stopping again shortly afterwards at a lovely spot overlooking Bridal Veil falls where we all made sandwiches and tried to get to know each other a little better at the top of the falls. Just before dusk we arrived at our destination for the evening, which was a surfing school in Raglan. A pretty cool place to be honest with really friendly staff, a ''flying fox'' zip line and a rope assault course. After playing for a couple of hours in the last of the daylight, the staff laid on a BBQ meal for us which we devoured with the drinks we bought from the supermarket. Most people bought just a couple of beers to have with their meal, whereas Christa and I had a whole litre of vodka on the table for some reason. Never mind, I thought, we can save it for another night. At about 3:30 am, I knew something had gone horribly wrong when there was only Christa and I (from the group) left up, a completely empty bottle of Smirnoff Red, having a sing-a-long with a couple of local mauri guys!! I'm not sure what time we eventually got to bed, but we both felt like we hadn't slept a wink when we got on the bus the next day. Big mistake! RAGALN TO HAHEI: We arrived in Waitomo at about 10:00 am, and I was the only person on the bus who had signed up to the ''all singing all dancing'' caving trip that they did there. Everyone else went on a leisurely walk through a wide open cave to look at some glow worms and then back to the town for some lunch and a cup of tea. I'm not quite sure why abseiling for three hours at ''Haggis Honking Hell Holes'' was such a good idea, particularly in my fragile state, but that is what I had in store. The trip was actually quite good and it did make me forget about the hangover from hell for a few hours as I was ducking, diving and climing through freezing cold water. After I got back to the group, I quickly grabbed a sandwich for the road (as everyone else was waiting for me) and we headed off to the Coromandel Peninsular at Hahei. We were staying at a holiday camp site, however our accommodation was a challet type thing with buk beds and incredibly powerful heaters! Little G cooked us a BBQ with help from the rest of the group, while I went straight to bed to nurse the remains of my hangover as I had been warned what to expect of the nights activities thus needed to mentally and physically prepare myself! That evening we all played a drinking game called 'Circle of Death', using cards that G had made up himself. I was introduced to this game in Fiji, using playing cards, but this was obviously the 'professional' version. The cards were laminated and everything! Surprisingly I held myself very well throughout the game, unlike most others who got absolutely trashed (especially Ashling who was hillarious, but bordering on annoying - a complete change of character from the sober version!). All in all a fantastic night was had. If only for the sake of group cohesion it worked a treat. HAHEI TO ROTORUA: Only a handful of us were up early enough for the 2.5 hour hike to Cathederal Cove from the campsite, but it was definitely the loss of the 'bedridden' that they never went. It was absolutely stunning and worthy a picture of many of the postcards of the North Island. We got back to the capsite, exhausted from the hike, to find that G had****ed up the remains of the steak from last nights BBQ and made us all sandwiches before heading off. The rest of the group must have smelt the steak cooking because they were out of bed and wandering around the campsite drooling and rather zombified. We headed off to Hotwater beach where, digging in the sand with shovels, you can find hot water springs. You dig yourself a little hole, big enough to get in, which fills up with really hot water and then jump in. Bearing in mind, it is right next to the Pacific Ocean (which is frezzing cold this time of year), therefore appears quite amazing. We were pushed for time, so didn't actually get wet above our knees but definitely worth a proper bathe if you have more time. It was dawn by the time we reached the Cultural Retreat at the house of a Maori called "Uncle Boys" - strange name you're thnking? I thought so too!! We stayed there for dinner and learned about the Maori culture for a couple of hours, after which the myself and the other lads had to perform the Haka and the girls did some strange dance with tennis balls on string. We left shortly after to head over to Rotorua, where we would be staying for the night and most of the next day. We were all really tired, so didn't bother doing much of this evening. ROTARUA TO TAUPO: Got up early and headed off to the Polynesian Spa for a dip in the thermal pools. They had a large swimming pool which was lovely and warm and then you go for a soak in a smaller pool (about 4 people can fit in these) which you can regulate the temperature of. This was much hotter and we could only stay in here for about 15 minutes before dipping back in the larger swimming pool. The one thing that really hits you though is the smell of sulphur from the water and it's slightly murky also. The smell starts to make you feel dizzy after a while so you don't want to spend too long in the spas, but it's thoroughly relaxing and your skin feels really soft afterwards. The driver picked us up from the spas and took us to Whakarewarewa where we saw a traditional Maori show and then went for a walk around the thermal attractions such as geisers, mud pools and lots of steam just coming out of the ground. Apparently Rotorua has the thinnest crust on the earth, which is why all this gas and steam is constantly escaping from the earths core. Thoughly facinating to see though as I have never experienced anything like this before and it makes you realise what kind of volatile planet we are living on. After lunch we drove about 100km to Taupo where some of us were dropped off at "Freefall" to do our skydive. Sabrina and Jessica came along for moral support (or morbid observation in case we plunged to our deaths!) and ended up signing the forms and doing the jump also. It was a beautiful clear day, so the views over lake Taupo as we jumped from the plane at 12,000 feet were like nothing else. I also paid for a cameraman to follow me down so that I could have the whole experience captured forever on celluloid. As soon as I landed, I just wanted to go straight back up and do it all over again, but I couldn't really justify the $215 it would cost me! That evening we all went out and almost won the pub quiz before staggering to the club next door and danced the night away to cheesy pop music. It was really nice that everyone from the bus went clubbing too as it gave us all an opportunity to bond a little better. Ashling managed to behave herself this time!! A legend night was had by all. TAUPO TO NATIONAL PARK: We left Taupo early so that we could get to National Park in time to do some activities. We had a choice of skiing at Whakapapa or doing the 'Tongariro Crossing' - supposedly one of the best one day walks in the world. Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side here as it was bitterly cold and began to snow. Andrew and Ashling had booked some skiing so they went off to do that, but the rest of us were interested in the walk. The walk was cancelled due to bad weather (I think it gets a bit dangerous in bad wetaher) so we all just milled about at the Alpine Lodge that we were staying at. We didn't really do very much apart from taking another spa, watch a few films and play games. A bit boring really, so I won't go on about it. Still we had a much deserved rest from all the excitement of the previous few days. NATIONAL PARK TO WELLINGTON: It was snowing fairly heavily as we left National Park, so visibility of the surrounding countryside was no better than the previous day, which is a pity as it is supposed to be lovely. We were bound for Wellington, where Christa and I had decided to spend 4 nights and leave all our new found friends that we had met to date. This meant that we had the weekend to explore the city of Wellington which I was really looking forward to. This was the first city we had been to since Auckland so as you can imagine washing needed to be done, digital cameras needed to be burnt to CD and I desperately wanted a Starbucks mocca!! As the first day progressed, Jessica and Sabrina decided to part company and Sabrina chose to stay in Wellington with Christa and I. We all shared a room together for the whole duration of our stay in Wellington which was really nice as we got along famously and were comfortable in each other's company. Friday night we went to the cinema to watch "Supersize Me", which was about a guy who only eats McDonalds for a month and the abuse it causes him healthwise. We actually found it a facinating documentary, which completely put us off fast-food for life (well for a while anyway). The following day we spotted Morgan Spurlock (the star of the film) out or a walk with his girlfriend. So, like three groupies we followed them through the steets of Wellington and cornered them in a health food shop. We had a little chat and did some group photos. An incredible coincidence, but makes a good story! On Saturday I contacted Ruth (whom I met in Fiji), as she lives in Wellington, to ask whether she was up for a night out with myself and the girls. Ruth jumped at the chance to come out so we all decided to meet in our dorm room and have some drinks before we headed out. We found the bargain of a lifetime on some vodka and baileys, so decided they would make as good a drink as any if they were mixed together. We had a great laugh playing cards and drinking as we got ourselves ready, however we were trashed by the time we went clubbing at about midnight. It was absolute carnage. I had no idea what I was dealing with going drink for drink with Sabrina and Christa - the ultimate drinking machines!! The following day, we slept in until about 2:00pm and Sabrina brought Christa nd I breakfast in bed with a cup of tea. I'm not sure whether Sabrina was as ill as Christa and I, but wild horses would not keep her away from her food!! Kindly, she made some for us too, which helped us to feel a little better. Once we had dragged our lazy backsides out of bed, we all headed off to Te Papa museum, which was a facinating dispalay of Kiwi culture in fabulous displays. Very educational. Christa spent most of it in the toilets throwing up her lunch though - no sympathy, self-inflicted!! The time came really quickly to move on, so on Sunday morning, we kissed goodbye to Sabrina and Christa and I made our way to the ferry to pick up the next bus to do the South Island. A new adventure lay ahead with new friends waiting...