Ok! Lets try this again (sorry I got logged off last time)

Lets start from the beginning of NZ

So we arrived in Auckland and stayed at the Base hostel there, we got to look aruond the main areas of town, go to the harbour, go to the big museum there and see all the maori artefacts, and then I went up the Sky Tower which gave great views of the whole city and all the surrounding volcanoes. Its the tallest buliding in the whole southern hemisphere (but I swear just over 300m doesn't sound that impressive....)

Later we got our backpacker campervan with 2 double beds one above the drivers and one made out of a table and chairs (its surprisingly comfy!) but we have a shower toilet and 4 hob cooker and microwave, its pretty nice! We've named him Norman and me sally and paul are driving that for the whole month in NZ (Kats foot is still healing and we decided 3 drivers would be more than enough) He's pretty easy to drive, just not great to manouver, I normally need everyone looking out for me, especially at the back!!

So then we drove to the Bay of Islands, and got an afternoon boat tour and saw most of the islands there, and went through the big hole in the rock (kind of like Durdle Door but much bigger!) and we saw LOADS of dolphins all swimming right underneath the boat, we had the opportunity to swim with them, but we're saving that for the South Island where its supposed to be fantastic!

The next day we got a tour up to Cape Regina (the northern most point of NZ) we got to drive along the 90 mile beach -we decided to go with a tour rather than drive ourselves otherwise we would have ended up like the picture above! But it was very odd driving in a coach through the sea! Then we got to go sandboarding YAY! But it was very different to in Peru, you had to go down on your belly, but it was still really fun! We went and saw the lighthouse and the meeting of the tasman and pacfic seas at cape regina. Then we went for the best fish and chips in the whole world! and yes they were very good mmmmmm. I also bought my 1st chocolate fish (a cadburys chocolate bar shaped like a fish with marshmallow in the middle, apparently very New Zealand!)

That night we drove to back to Auckland, and the next day we drove to Waitmo and got to do black water rafting (or tubing) through the caves there, and saw all the glow worms, it was amazing, we got to jump over a few falls, and do some tubing in the total pitch black! It was an amazing experience.

From there we drove onto Rotatura and experienced our 1st deparment of conservation free campsite.... a field in the absolute middle of nowhere, but at last it was free! There were a couple of other people there though so it wasn't totally random.

We spent our 1st day in Rotarua searching for a free hot spring and eventually found one, it was very bizzare sitting in a random hot river with the locals but it was in a really beautiful setting. That afternoon we walked around the park and saw more geothermal sites and took in the wonderful sulpher smells!

That night we went to a Maori cultural experience. We got to see them all coming in on a river in a canoe, and then they showed us their tribes haka dance, and showed us all the weapons, and poi and other dances and songs of their people. It was amazing! Their faces are so scary though! Then we got to eat the traditional Hangi - food all steam cooked underground - chicken lamb and many many potatoes... it was sooooooooooo amazing and it was all you can eat - so considering we're currently living off canned food to try and compensate for the expense of New Zealand you can imagine that we took full advantage!! Afterwards we went for a glow worm walk through the forest.

The next day we went to Te Puia a massive geothermal park, and got to see geyzers and mud pools! They also had loads of maori stuff there and we got to see the weaving and carving schools there. We also got to see Kiwi birds!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are the most random creatures ever, they can't even decide if its a mammal or a bird! They're just big balls of fluff with legs, I love them!!

Then we went and looked around the redwood forests in the area and went for a walk, which just just ended up with us taking loads of random photos... but we did walk for at least 30 mins!

We've spent today in Taupo (after last night going to a British pub - they had Cider on tap!!! I was so happy it's been so long since I've had a cider!) we went for a walk around the big lake, and then to see the Huka Falls a little waterfall. me and sally have both bought maori poi so spent a while learning how to do that. Then we went to a glassblowing factory and to a honey hive with free samples!!!

Tomorrow we drive to wellington via Napier and the longest place name in the world. We're gonna spend a few days there before travelling to the south island for the rest of our time here.

So thats me! tally ho!!!

xxx