I arrived into New Zealand at the new time of 5:30am and felt very tired and very cold! I had definitely climatised to Australian weather so I ended up wearing three layers of tops and still feeling cold. I got to the hostel at 7am and asked the receptionist what I should do whilst in Auckland. She recommended Rangitoto Island so I grabbed some stuff and headed off. The next ferry wasn't till 9am so I had a walk down by the harbour and grabbed some breakfast. I then boarded the ferry and had a 20 minute ferry crossing to the volcanic island. There were some really good views.

When I started walking a lady ahead of me asked if I was doing the walk on my own too and when I said yes we started chatting and walked together. Her name was Peggy and she was from Melbourne and was in Auckland because the family she nannies for were over in Auckland to visit family. We walked an hour and a half up to the top of the volcanic crater which was quite a difficult walk but was definitely worth it for the views...they were amazing! It was such a clear day and it had definitely warmed up. We then did a walk around the crater and then did a walk to some caves and climbed through in the dark which was definitely challenging and then we walked an hour or so down to the bay to sit by the water and have our lunch. It was a good walk as there was volcanic rock everywhere which looked just like soil. We paddled our feet in the water to cool down and then set off on another 1.5 hour walk back to the ferry port as the last boat was at 3:30pm. It felt a very long way going back as I was getting really tired after only 3 hours sleep. We passed by some old bachs which are properties that were built in the early 1900's and some of them are still inhabited as they have stayed in the family that first owned them. They felt a bit spooky as there was no-one around but there was washing on the line!

We finally made it back to the ferry port and waited for the ferry feeling dehydrated, exhausted and boiled all in one. We got the ferry back to Auckland and then Peggy said she'd treat me to a cocktail so we sat in a really nice bar on the waterfront and had our cocktails. We exchanged numbers and said we'd try and go for dinner the next day. I then went back to the hostel to rest.

Even though it felt really sad I got into bed at 6:30pm to get some rest. A couple of girls came into the room as I was getting ready for bed and I felt the need to explain that I don't normally go to bed at this time. Amazingly I slept until 10:30pm when I heard a girl making some noise and it took me a moment to try and work out if the light was coming from outside or from the light in the room. It was still evening though so because it was too late to go and do anything I wrote my travel blog for an hour or so and then fell asleep again waking at 8am the next day...definitely a mammoth sleep session!