Kia ora, hello and welcome to our last NZ blog! We're jetting up North to Fiji tomorrow so will be saying a VERY fond farewell to this awesome country, it's treated us well!

Last Monday brought our last day on the East As bus to depart back to Taupo. We sang our "East As" song composition to Pedro (remember this task he'd assigned us?) to the tune of "Hey There Delilah", detailing our escapades that we'd experienced during the last 3 days of travelling around this NZ region. He was very impressed with it if we can say so oursleves! We even managed to make everything rhyme (OK, it did take us the most part of a whole evening to complete!). Pedr then reciprocated with a "traditional farewell dance" he'd come up with so that we weren't the only ones making a fool out of ourselves (thanks Pedro), which was hilaaaaarious - to represent we travellers that translate into "migrating birds" in the Maori language, his "dance" consisted of slowly rising from a fetal position on the carpet, running around the lounge with his arms spread and squawking like a seagull. Whilst he made us swear not to laugh, it was slightly uncontrollable...!

Once we'd packed our things together, we headed off to Rotorua first where we were to drop Ariane and Juri off at their hostel before going on to Taupo. Further to "enhance our knowledge of the Maori culture" along our route, Pedro informed us of the many traditions they follow, including some sightly dodgy ones, shall we say: after travelling past a road sign indicating 2 humps in the road, our lovely bus driver informed us that they named this "War Party", representing the act of Maori women in past tribes distracting advancing enemy tribes by running ahead and lifting their upper clothes to reveal their, well, assets. Thus, to respect this brave act, each time we passed this sign and Pedro called "WAR PARTY!", we were to do the same...However, with the ratio of 3 females to 2 males on the bus, you can probably guess that the overwhelming decision was a no, much to the latter members' disappointment! (Something told us this "tradition" was confined to Pedro's bus alone...!)

Once we reached Taupo after saying a sad goodbye to Ariane and Juri, we were dropped off by Pedro and his little green bus at our hostel. And with a loud "HEY SHEEP" farewell from his window (we recieved many a strange look!) he sped away into the distance.

Tuesday morning we were up at 5am to catch the Tongariro Alpine Crossing bus for our free second attempt at the full day trek. However, once we were kitted out and taken to the start of the walk, we had a post of deja vu; the weather had closed in on us and once again we were looking into the mist enveloping the landscape. After assessing the rubbish conditions, our guides told everyone that it was unlikely that we were to reach half way and the weather was not going to let up, so therefore asked us all who would like to persevere and who would like to be taken back to try on a later, better, day. Understandably, almost our whole 30+ people group decided to take the latter option, having paid $145 to take this infamously scenic hike, however Em and I were as keen as ever; we were getting this walk for free, we'd woken up in what felt like the middle of the night to get here, it was our last day on Taupo, and our first time had been just as bad weather-wise and is still one of the best experiences we've had yet! Sarah, our brilliant guide from the previous attempt, recognised us and sympathised, and we managed to encourage another 3 guys to join our hardcore-walk group! They were David and Felix, both gap year students on the kiwi bus we were to be joining tomorrow, and Peter, a lovely guy from Hong Kong. As they wouldn't normally take up such a small group, we were very fortunate in that Sarah was more than happy to take us, even telling her boss that he need only pay her half her wages for the trek so that we could go! We were so grateful, and as the rest of the boring lot traipsed back onto the bus, we set off with our walking poles and crampons...

We named ourselves the "6 Musketeers" and the walk once again came up trumps! Peter, bless him, had an absolute beast of a camera, needing a whole extra rucksack to carry it around! Every so often he would stop to pull it out, apologising profusely about having to make us stop; we had to make him promise in the end to stop saying sorry as we didn't mind one bit, especially after a particularly tough section of the walk when needing to catch a breath! He was so polite and sweet! He'd never seen snow either, so walking in snow up to our knees was as much of an experience for him as it was for us! Sarah, our guide, was her the bubbly thing that we remembered, naming Emily her "Little Snow Pirate" for volunteering to lug Sarah's HUGE backpack the whole way.

We climbed up the Devil's Staircase in the mist and snow, a tough section of steps leading us up the side of the mountain, excitedly glimpsing parts of the bottom of Peter Jackson's Mt Doom looming beside us. (This would only last a couple of minutes, however, before the cloud engulfed it again). Upon reaching Red Crater, a huge expanse of snow making up an area of around 8 rugby pitches at the highest point on the track, we stopped for lunch - in good ol' alpine style! Sarah produced a large blue and yellow wind-proof sheet that we each grasped an edge of, threw into the air, tucked under our bums and sat on - we were inside our own little make-shift tent! We felt like kids tucked cosily inside, nibbling on our rolls and crisps whilst the wind whirled around outside. (We all got the giggles as Peter was persistently buffeted in the face by a loose bit of sheet, but was too poilte to shift it!). It must have been a strange sight to be walking along outside to see a small blue and yellow mound plonked in the middle of the snow!

Once finished, Sarah confirmed to us that we would have to turn back due to the dangerous snow conditions, and led us back down the mountain off-route, once again falling into waist-deep snow drifts and sliding down steeper expanses of snow on our bums. It was great fun! We stopped off at the Soda Springs waterfall which Sarah led us under so that we were crouching behind the cascading water, looking out along the valley. Needless to say we got slightly wet, though it soon began to sleet so we didn't care! Upon reaching the end of our 7 hour trek, we stripped ourselves of our wet clothing and hopped onto the bus. Sarah once again treated us all to a portion of chips and a sprite, which was just what we needed :) It was an awesome hike and we were so glad that we were given a second chance! We were to be meeting Felix and David tomorrow on our next Kiwi bus which was cool, as we'd got to know them really well.

Wednesday we were back on our last ever Kiwi wagon with our last ever bus driver, Rich, and met by David and Felix. We made a stop at the Tongariro National Park for a beautiful walk in the sun across the open moorland and forest, between the 3 dormant snow-capped volcanoes surrounding us, Mt Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu. We got to know a few more of our fellow bus travellers as we walked, all the usual friendly, fun-loving sort that we've been meeting, and we were able to tell them about the places they will be travelling to in the South island where they'll be going once we leave them (they all started in Auckland and are heading south on this bus). We were also informed (or rather warned!) about one particular American on this bus, Sam, whom had drunk awhole PINT of someone else's puke to win 10 free nights of accommodation...! Crazy guy and totally GROSS! - we stayed well away from him!

We reached a large waterfall and plunge pool along the way, which Dad will recognise as Gollum's Pool, where Peter Jackson filmed the creature catching fish in the LOTR movie! Pretty cool. We arrived at River Valley, our next overnight stay, in the afternoon, after a quick photo with a giant plastic carrot (don't ask!). We were to be staying in Adventure Lodge, a totally secluded and remote cabin nestled in the hills and valleys beside a rushing river. It took Rich 45 mins alone to drive along a winding dirt track to reach it! It was so gorgeous and chilled, a huge open fire acting as the centre-piece in the middle of a large open living area and 2 staircases at either end leading up into a one-roomed dorm bedroom to sleep up to 20 people each. (They have affectionately been labelled as the "Orgy Rooms", so as enticing as it sounds, we decided to opt for the more private 6-bed bunk rooms...!) With no TV, we all sat around playing various card games into the night, picking up many new ones along the way. We even managed to coin our own game between a group of us, Spit, a combination of Spoons and Pit! (For anyone who knows of Spoons, this is an even more violent and scrappy version - even blood was drawn!). It's always a little apprehensive getting onto a new bus again with a group that have all been travelling together for a while beforehand, but it always turns out to be great, becoming part of the group and making many more new friends. There hasn't been anyone so far whom we haven't got along with!

The next day Emily and I had booked onto the horse trek with the River Valley Stables, our last one in NZ. When asked about our level of experience last night, they told us that as we were the only 2 going and we were pretty high, we will be able to do a bit of cross-country along the way which we were pretty excited about! We were met by Lizzie, our English guide, and saddled up with 2 of their fastest steeds, me on Whisper and Emiy on Bling (!). The horse Lizzie had intended to ride was having a pregnancy test today by the vet so she was eagerly awaiting the results! She was lovely, and was very pleased to be in the company of someone who was as interested in equine stuff as she was - her and Em spent almost the whole ride jabbering away about horse nutrition and positive and negative ions affecting animal behaviour! Needless to say, I was slightly lost, but they loved it! It was quite funny listening to them both, and nice for Emily to have someone other than me to discuss this with - I'm perhaps not the most eager of listeners when it comes to this subject!

It was very wet and muddy underfoot from last night's rain, so we slipped and slithered up and down the hills around the farm, through fields of deer herds and across rivers. Every so often Lizzie would spy a decent looking log and so we'd jump them one at a time which was fab. It was a great way to see the beautiful scenery around this remote area, and we galloped up the slopes and across meadows, hopping over ditches and up banks along the way. Once we arrived back at the yard after a good couple of hours, Lizzie eagerly ran inside to check the results from the vet, returning back to us all flushed and happy to tell us it was positive! She was lovely, and we gave her a big hug goodbye after promising to add her on Facebook!

After a shower and a few more games of cards, we all hopped back on the bus to travel down to Wellington, Emily's and my last stop of our NZ trip. After a little stop in the town named Bulls for an icecream with the guys, we arrived into the capital in the early evening. Before turning a corner, Rich told us all to close our eyes and open them once he'd past it, presenting us an awesome view of the sun setting over the ocean to our right. He played a hilarious "Flight of the Concords" goodbye song as we were to be leaving this bus, and the guys told us to meet them out in the city that night for our last night out, but we declined, as we were to be meeting family. However, a few of them are going to Fiji in the next few weeks so we promised to meet them there :)

We met our cousin, Nick, outside the hostel (after almost running right past him!) and he drove us back to mum's brother, Jim's, house in Tawa where we also met our Aunt, Eve. After only meeting the family once quite a few years back, it was nice to catch up a bit on the years and on our travels. We had a delicious lasagne and we had a good chat with our other cousin, Steven, via Skype, as he is in England with his girlfriend trying to find a job. We appear to have swapped countries! It was nice to see him though :) They're all so lovely and welcoming.

The next morning, Eve took us to see the primary school where she teaches 5-6 year olds in Tahiti. It's a small school with the majority of children coming from fairly deprived backgrounds and a prominent Maori influence. We sat in on their morning assembly where we were introduced as Mrs Law's English nieces, and listened to the Maori prayers and notices given by their principal, Steven. We then went to see Eve's class where we sat with them for a bit whilst they ate their lunch and they told us MANY little "why did the ... cross the road?" jokes (often "because it wanted to"!) - very cute! We were introduced to Boston, a little boy who's blind and can see only with the little peripheral vision he has remaining. He and his learning assistant, Sally, taught Emily and I how to use his braille machine that he's learning to use to read and write. He was very impressive on it, it's amazing what you can do with a few correctly placed dots! I managed to learn the alphabet and the system in order to work out each letter, however Em was slightly more lost...! Eve then took us to the staff room where we met a few of her friends and the principal, Steven, who sat down and taught us our Mihi's, a Maori way for people to introduce themselves and where they come from. It describes your ancestral family members, tribe, mountain, river and Waka (ar canoe) so we had fun converting it to relate to us and learning a few Maori words along the way!

We met Jim and Nick for lunch in a little cafe which was nice, before Nick, Em and I went to collect their new washing machine as theirs had given up the ghost just as we'd arrived - not so good with all of our travel washing to get through!! Eve's lovely friend had kindly offered to do it for us if we didn't manage to find a new one, though, which was very generous :) That evening Eve and I made Anzac bicuits, delicious coconutty and oaty cookies, whilst Nick made us a great green thai curry for dinner. He works as a chef in a catering business so he's pretty darn good! We spent the rest of the evening reminiscing with Jim about life back in England with his family and laughing about all of the things he used to get up to with Mum as a kid!

On Saturday we took a trip to the local veg market with our big farmer baskets to carry our produce in (we couldn't stop laughing when Nick carried them around so he swiftly handed them over to us!). They brought home a few fruits that we'd never tried before for later. They treated us for brunch in a swanky cafe before we returned home to watch an episode of Last Chance To See, a documentary by Stephen Fry and a zoologist about the endangered Kakapo bird native to NZ.

This morning we went for a walk in the sun around the Pauatihunui wildlife reserve nearby after a coffee and Lea and Perona in a cafe, then popped into a few shops to get a few cheapo tops for Fiji (even after two pre-paid package attempts and apparently wasted dollars, I still haven't recieved the couple of tops I left in an Auckland hostel - very annoying!). Emily then popped in to see Eve's parents with her before returning to an amazing roast dinner and selection of the new fruits for us to try :) It's been so nice staying with them and great to catch up with our family from across the planet! They've all been great and it'll be sad to leave them tomorrow.

We're in two minds about Fiji: we're really going to miss this AMAZING country and everyone in it, whilst Fiji is going to be amazing and we're looking forward to getting some Summer at last! It's a new experience once again, so bring it on!

New Zealand, you've been totally sweet as, choice, awesome and everything else these Kiwi's like to call it! We've pretty much been everywhere, done everything, but it's still not enough, so until the next time :D

Kiwi kisses from the Bright Twins, love to you all and see you in Fiji! We don't know how much access we'll have on that island but we'll try and keep you updated as much as we can xxxxxxxxx