After leaving Whitianga, we stopped briefly to look at some huge trees(!!), while Murray, Maury, (whatever!) told us about the Maori legend of how the earth began. Afterwards we jumped back on the coach and headed to amining area, where we walked over swing bridges and through black caves up and down a valley. The walk through the caves was done "Conga Style", as it was completely pitch black, save for the few gloworms on the ceiling- though they did no...

So, after leaving Auckland we headed for Hot Water Beach which, if you dug down in the right place on the beach, you could sit in hot water!! This was due to the high geothermal activity in this part of NZ. In fact, just at the shoreline, boiling water was bubbling up from the sand- so hot that you literally couldn't stand there for any length of time! After sitting in our pool for a bit, we headed back to the bus, where a German girl from our tour slipped (fully...

Arrived in Auckland early afternoon, and found a hostel just off the main street. After popping into the Kiwi Experience office I found out that I might have to hang around here for a day longer than I wanted as the bus was full for the Monday and Tuesday... b*****! Never mind- I went for a walk around town before crashing out early. Next day I got up and got on the Kiwi Experience "Free Bus Tour of Auckland". First we went off to the harbour bridge, w...

After a good nights sleep, I got up and walked all around central Melbourne. Really nice city... the hustle and bustle of a good city but a little less crazy than Sydney!! After seeing the sights and riding the trams I then headed down to meet my old housemate and colleague Rob at Virgin Active Melbourne. He showed me around and I saw exactly how rubbish VA in the UK was compared to where he worked now!! That night we met at the MCG for my first AFL (Australia...

We arrived at the Scudds' farm that evening, and went down to the fire they had gotten going in the back yard. Sat there with Ben, Bec, Ben's folks and a friend of the family, sinking a few beers and chatting mainly about sport (I love Australia!) by firelight. Scuddsy took me for a drive around some of the land of the farm (they farm Australian flowers) before we went indoors for dinner- meatloaf with gravy and veg.... was absolutley delicious!!! Then, tired as ...