We drove to Whakahoro to Blue Duck Lodge where they have a big conservation project taking place to preserve the Blue Duck which is an endangered specie. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived so we had a cup of tea whilst we listened to Dan the owner talk about the history of the area and the work he is doing.The lodge is a working farm so people could try out goat hunting, clay pigeon shooting or go on a safari.Due to the weather most of us opted to chill...

We left Maketu to go to Rotorua and a group of us (Sarah, Ryan, both Stefan's, Devon and I) decided to explore the town rather than do one of the activities.We headed to a café to have a big breakfast and then we headed down to the water and walked around to see the geothermal activity spots.One place said that the water was 112 degrees and it was steaming.You keep getting wafts of egg smell, which was not pleasant!We were supposed to meet back at the bus at 12:...

We headed towards the town of Waitomo to do some caving and see some glow worms. I'd selected to do the Tumo Tumo Tubing which the girls and Stefan, Ryan and Devon were also doing as well as a Danish couple called Morton and Mia.We went to the office at 10am and got taken to an area to get into all the gear.We put wetsuits and jackets on and wellies and a hard hat and then we walked to the entrance of the cave.As we were approaching them I suddenly remembered tha...

In the morning we headed over to the west coast to go to Raglan which is a world famous surf area.We stopped at Paeroa which is where New Zealand's famous fizzy drink L&P originated and stopped at the café for a cuppa then Sarah and I took photos of each other in front of the giant bottle sign.We then merged buses so that there were 37 of us all one bus and I sat at the back of the bus with the boys.We then stopped at Hamilton (NZ's fourth largest city - whi...

I waited outside the hostel at 7:30am ready to be collected by the Stray bus.I was the only one to get on the minibus so I sat near the back and joked about being the only one on the trip but Daisy the driver reassured me that there were other people to be collected.About 8 people got on from the YHA international hostel and a guy called Stefan came and sat across the aisle from me and he seemed friendly.Everyone else seemed very quiet so I was a bit worried abou...