Every single thing has made me smile and think 'wow'! New Zealand is definitely b-eutiful!! So here is a rundown... We left Auckland on Monday morning - it was funny to be back in the drivers seat but pretty easy as we have a sweet little silver car we have named Clive, or BuBu when he is being good! We drove around 4 hours up the northern peninsula, through rolling hills and lots of cows to get to the Bay of Islands. The sky was clear blue and we had a great view out over the Islands from a lookout point. The sea seemed to twinkle like millions of diamonds! We visited Treaty House. This is the site where, in 1840 a treaty was signed between the British and the Maori tribes to give the "poms" authority and hopefully get them to bring some peace and order to a country, which had inter-tribe disputes, and problems with the immigrants. The amazing thing about this place was getting an aesthetic perspective on just how different the cultures are. First of all we went into the Maori Meeting House (whare runanga), which features decorative and symbolic carvings from different Maori tribes accross the coutnry. The building felt spiritual and alive, in contrast to the colonial British house. It was strange to enter this straight after. The building was laid out in traditional 19th century style with china teapots and typically 'straight' and formal everything! We also saw the longest Maori war canoe here, as well as a GIANT tree! We went to explore the Bay from a boat the next day, when it was pretty cloudy. In fact the grey skies were really stunning as a backdrop to the islands, which were very green and hilly with trees on and then mossy rocks going down to the water. We saw the famous 'hole in the rock', and then, about 15 - 20 wild bottlenose dolphins. They were in a pod with babies, and were swimming, twisting, diving and playing right next to and almost under the boat!! They were absolutely gorgeous and such characters. The baby swims in the middle of their mum and the 'midwife'! How sweet is that!? After this lovely trip we did a 7 and a half hour drive to Waitomo on the west coast of the North Island. The famous Waitomo Caves drew us here, and we were absolutely stunned by the lovely scenerey that went with them. Today I went a little crazy, appealing the the adrenaline junky that is rearing its head inside me!!.... I abseiled 150 ft down a crevasse that was at points only as wide as my body. I was super brave (or mad!) and went first. I got to the edge and had to step off and hang in mid air before lowering myself down into the narrowing entrance to the pitch black Ruakuri Caves. When we were all down (a group of 6 of us) we crawled a little way through the rocks and then flew down a 'zip line' into a black water-filled abyss. Again I went first and didnt have a clue what was happening as I was strapped to the line and then the guy pushed me into the abyss (aka Fox Flying). This was awesome, and by now the adrenaline was really pumping. Next step was to do some Black Water Rafting. So, we are still in the depths of the caves and we hold an innertube behind us and jump 10ft into one of the subterranean rivers and then go downstream into caverns, which were FILLED with glow-worms. It was really spectacular - just like looking up at millions of stars twinkling! After this bit the cave got really narrow and we had to swim and crawl through little spaces! The water was absolutely freezing, so after 4 hours, when the guide said it was time to ascend out of the cave I was quite glad! I didn't realise at this point that we were climbing up a full-on waterfall inside the cave, with some parts so narrow we had to get into some very strange postitions to get through! This part was incredible! Really exhilirating, and not something I thought I would have imagined myself doing a while ago! The whole experience was AWESOME! I loved every moment of it, despite being terrified quite a lot of the time! This evening we drove to Roturua, seeing lots of sheep and pretty sights on the way. Will let you know all about it... I am still in awe of all this natural beauty and feel thoroughly put in my place as one little human in a big and beautiful world! Bring on the adventures.... Tx