In New Zealand there are many good things and it sucked a lot that I only had a week to try and see them. I left Bangkok on a hugely long flight to Sydney and arrived at 6 in the morning when it was freezing cold. I instantly caught a cold and spent that day sleeping and feeling crap. Oh and I went on the monorail to a museum and felt bored. It was raining loads and the hostel was not great. :(

But the next day it was bright and sunny and so I went to the harbour and saw the bridge and the opera house which were both very beautiful in the sun and then set off on a huge walk around Sydney ending with me crossing the harbour bridge that night which was great. I didn't do the bridgeclimb in the end but I don't care that much. :p. Then I flew to New Zealand and it was cold and raining and I felt even more depressed; I missed my bus stop twice and was very annoyed; stupid Britomart transport centre. But luckily my hostel was fantastic; it's in a really old house and the people there are great. So I met lots of people and went to the museum the next day with some of them. Was an interesting place - we saw a maori culture show where they danced with many sticks and pois and stuck their tongues out lots. Then me and Nicole, who is very organised and knows exactly what's going on (not :P) booked on a magic backpacker bus tour to the Northland (the bit of NZ above Auckland). New Zealand looks really beautiful and I was glad to get out of Auckland which is basically a very far away English city with a big needle). We saw the biggest tree in NZ which was pretty enormous and then arrived in Pahia which is in the really scenic Bay of Islands. We went to a BBQ that night and met everyone else on the bus and drunk many Jagerbombs or whatever their called. And I met someone from Exmouth!! We were both walking to the ATM from the hostel asking where we were from and we each said Exmouth and went all shaky :). She went to St Margeret's in Exeter though so although we know loads of the same people we never met before. Very strange.

Next day we drove to Cape Reinga which is where the Pacific and the Tasman Sea meet and the North of NZ. It was a great day with sun and amazing scenery, Nicole took about 900 pictures. We went sandboarding down some enormous sanddunes which was loads of fun and drove back along 90 mile beach. Our bus driver was great and talked for ages about how the local people live in this remote area. Day after we went for a cruise round the Bay of Islands and saw a big pod of dolphins who came right up to the boat. That was amazing but we couldn't swim with them as they were feeding. back in Aucland I went back to the hostel (most of the people there seem to be living there as they work so there it's really friendly). Today Nicole and everyone else went South so I've just been in rainy crappy Aucland for the day :(. But tomorrow I fly to the Cook Islands!

See you in 3 weeks :)