Saturday 11th April-

We got up at 6am on Tuesday and got a taxi to the airport. The plane we got was fairly empty. We got to Auckland arpund lunchtime. The immigration asked us the most questions we've been asked so far about what we do and how we are funding our trip, but eventually she let us in. It's quite cold here and rains a lot. It's also extremely hilly! Helen has already had about 5 references to the ex-prime minister. We haven't done much here yet- we've walked to town a couple of times but it's not very big. We also had an unsuccessful trip to a factory outlet place. Today we both had our hair cut for the first time in 5 months, it was nice to be pampered and get our messy do's sorted out.

Thursday 16th April-

On Sunday we had to sort out how we were going to get around. We debated about whether to get a car or buy a bus pass or just use public transport. We went on the internet and looked at the website for Magic buses (backpacker aimed hop- on hop-off buses that go everywhere on both islands). We were very lucky- they had a half price sale on some of their passes, only for the easter weekend. We bought the Magic Adventure pass each and saved ourselves lots of money! Our pass didn't take us any further north so we decided to do a quick trip up to the Bay of Islands first with a different bus company.
On Tuesday morning we packed up and left for Paihia in the Bay of Islands. The bus left at 10.15am and it took about 4 hours to get there. The views and scenery were amazing. The road wound its way through continuous mountains and hills that were covered in fields and woods. We passed lots of sheep (including some bright pink ones at Sheepworld!), some cows, some alpacas and some birds of prey hovering in the sky. We eventually arrived at Paihia, a pretty little seaside town. The day was cloudy but quite warm so after checking in we explored the village. There were some nice little shops and restaurants and we bought an ice-cream and ate it by the sea. We cooked ourselves a meal that night and then sat in the communal tv room. A nice old couple chatted to us for a bit, but we suspect they were bordering alcoholics as they'd had a bottle of wine with dinner, several gin and tonics and were now cracking open the whisky. On Wednesday we were going to do a boat trip out to see some dolphins and look at the 'hole in the rock', but we decided we didn't want to spend that much money on 4 hours of dolphin spotting and we didn't know what was so special about this 'hole in the rock'. Instead we decided to go to the Maori Treaty Grounds. It was a bit of a stroll there but when we got there we looked around the grounds of buildings. It was about the treaty that was signed when the British joined the Maori people. The 'meeting house' was full of cool carvings, and there was also a 35m war canoe. Afterwards we walked back to our hostel before it started to rain, and that night we went to a nearby bar for a meal deal. Today we got the bus back to Auckland and we're staying there for 1 night before heading off again tomorrow.

Monday 20th April-

On Friday morning we got up early (after a bad nights sleep on the worst ever bed) and made our way to the Magic office. Soon, the bus pulled up and we were on our way to Rotorua. There were loads of other pick ups from the town centre so it was about half an hour before we were out of the city. The driver was quite helpful and was telling us about the area as we drove through it. Magic buses also stop at interesting sights along the way. We stopped off at Mount Eden for a photo stop- it is one of Aucklands many volcanoes (all dormant of course) and there was a great view of the city from the top. We then carried on our journey and on the way we had to fill out some sheets about where we were staying and what acitivites we wanted to do so that the driver could book some things for us. After a while we arrived in Waitomo. We had over 3 hours there to do some sight seeing. We went to the glow-worm caves to do the entrance tour. There was a group of about 40-50 of us and we followed a tour guide through the limestone caves. They were quite interesting and there were some good formations in there. After walking through the caves we ended up at a river at the bottom. We all got into some little boats and then we silently glided through the darkness. On the ceiling there were thousands of glow worms. It was amazing looking up at them, like a very starry sky. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any photos on the tour. We then made our way to the 'shearing shed'- not for sheep, but for angora rabbits. They were so big and fluffy and soft. We saw one that had just been shaved and it was stretched out and tied down by it's ffet, which looked a bit cruel, but it has to be done otherwise the rabbits die of heat exhaustion. They had a shop selling things made out of the hair too. We then went to a bar for some lunch, before going for a look around the museum. It was quite small but there were some things about the caves and rocks and animals inside, as well as the history of the area. Chris managed to set off an alarm by sticking his head too far in an exhibit. There was also a fake but very narrow cave tunnel you could try crawling through but neither of us thought we would fit.
We got to Rotorua at about 5pm. It smells so badly of eggs because of all the sulphur pools and lakes and geysers. On Saturday we went for a walk around the Government gardens and to a lake. We'd booked to do a Tamaki Maori village tour that night so on our way home we went into their office to see what time we had to be there. It's a good job we did because our bus driver has booked us in for the wrong night so we had to book it again. It started at 6pm and we were picked up by buses and taken to the village. Each bus had to pick their own Chief, and ours was a big jolly man called Nicholas from Trinidad and Tobago. When we got there the Chiefs had to greet each other in the traditional way- touching their noses and foreheads together twice. We then all waited around a clearing and eventually some maori warriors came out one at a time to challenge the chiefs and did some weird moves and noises and fight moves. Then a peace token was given to a chief and the land was made free for us all to walk on. The village chief came out and led us all into the village where we could see traditional ways of life being acted out and we could ask them questions. We then went into a room where all the villagers did some singing and dancing for us and explained their weapons and lifestyle. It was all very good. Then we went to the food hall where we had an all you can eat buffet that was cooked in a Hangi- their underground ovens. The food was very nice and we ate a lot. We made our way home at 9pm, and on the way the driver made some people sing some songs. We got to a small roundabout and we were singing 'she'll be coming round the mountain' and the driver went round and round the roundabout beeping her horn, and then one of the other buses from our tour joined in , and no-one else could get on the roundabout and it was very funny!
Yesterday we went to the Buried Village. This is where the white and pink terraces were- apparently the eighth wonder of the world- but it was all buried by a volcano over 100 years ago. Some of the village buildings have been excavated so it was interesting to look around. We also walked around next to a waterfall which was nice. The bus driver took us to some photo stops on the way back including the green and blue lakes nearby.
Last night we went to the cinema to see Monsters Vs. Aliens, which was ok. Today it is raining so we won't be able to do much.