Sending you all lots of love from NZ. Hope everyone is good at home :)

My last blog left us at my plane journey over to Aus (with individual iPads OMG).

I arrived into Auckland in the afternoon and booked into my hostel. My hostel turned out to be ok because the people I met were lovely, but when I first arrived I wanted to cry! Sometimes making friends gets tiring and after having a wonderful week and a bit in Melbourne with people who know where I'm from and know how long I've been away for and know when I'm going home, it almost seemed like starting again. But it was fine in the end as everyone was lovely, as they always are, and it turned out to be a-okay. No wuckin furries!

On my first day in Auckland I went for an explore around the city. I walked up to the harbour and to a nice view of the Harbour Bridge in the hope of seeing people bungeeing but no luck! The sun was shining though. Watched the boats in the harbour. I want one. Haha.

The next day I hired a car with Diego, Majek, and Chris and we drove up to the Bay of Islands. It was funny- I was in the car hire place and Majek asked me my name- that's the great thing about traveling, you've gotta say yes! Even if you don't know people's names. And we had a great day; saw a beautiful waterfall, went on a walk through the rainforest to a great view point, went on the beach, and had a good meal at a bar by the sea. The views were incredible, the water so blue, lots of islands in beautiful bays. I would have liked to have spent more time there but we headed back to the hostel with great views of Auckland at night.

My final day in Auckland was spent doing a section of the coast to coast walk, from the top of Mt Eden through the beautiful Auckland Domain and and to the city. I treated myself to my first ever sushi when I got back- It was a good morning! Then I met my lovely auntie Chris, she took me back to her wonderful place in Stillwater and we had good wine and good food and such a lovely catch up. It was infinitely lovely to see her and we had a wonderful afternoon and evening. Lovely stuff. :) I didn't want to leave but unfortunately had to, and then packed up my bits ready for joining the Kiwi Experience in the morning.

The Kiwi bus was so full, but with therefore lots of people to meet. Everyone was friendly and by the time we reached Hot Water Beach friends were made. Haha. The water at Hot Water Beach was not really that hot unfortunately. We got there too late to catch it before the tide came in, but had a sunbathe anyway and the beach was beautiful. Two bad things, Georgia's towel got soaked by a big wave (hahaha) and I got stung by a bee! Little sod. Not nice. I had brown rice for tea, which I will never have again as it took about 45 minutes to cook- Totally ridiculous! Stupid rice. Then we watched Americas Next Top Model and had a bonding sesh outside before going to bed.

The next day we headed down to Waitomo to go black water rafting and see the glow worms. Fun facts; the glow worms are actually maggots and it's their poo that glows. They live for 6 months as maggots before turning into flies, and then they only live for 2 days as they cannot eat or digest. What a wonderful life. Anyway, the black water rafting was fun- we jumped off waterfalls, did caving and saw loads of glow worms. I did feel a bit ridiculous in the tubes that we floated in and am dreading seeing the photos. Haha. Hot soup, hot showers and an early night in beds without bunks. Lush.

Our next stop was the smelly but beautiful Rotorua. On the way we stopped so some members in our group could do zorbing. It looked fun. Once we had checked into our hostel I then went down to the geothermal springs and to the lake with Georgia and Chris; we saw a beautiful little church and carved buildings and then went for a swim around the back of the church in the lake. As I was stood there the sun was shining, the lake was so still and I had a little moment! It was so stunning- to be able to experience all these things and visit all these wonderful places is pretty incredible. I felt very, very lucky and very, very blessed. In the evening we got ready (and put make up on OMG what a great) for the Maori evening. It was a great evening- we learnt about the culture, watched the opening challenge and the peace offering accepted, was taught the haka, watched a concert with Maori stories, songs and dances, and volunteered for all the activities. Dinner was so yum- cooked under ground in the geothermal vents, and as much as you can eat. Woohoo. The final blessing was lovely and the bus journey home was the funniest bus journey of my life. I didn't want to leave! We headed to Lava Bar in the evening with the biggest bunch of weirdo kiwis ever. Come on NZ, I thought your men wouldn't be quite to bizarre and creepy on the dance floor!

From Rotorua we went to Lake Taupo. On the way we stopped at the Te Puia arts and crafts institute. We learnt about carving and weaving, and then saw the most incredible geizers and geothermal activity- it was like Jurassic park, you just expected dinosaurs to come creeping out from behind the steaming vents. Our guide was lovely, and he boiled us some eggs in one of the pools. Appropriate because it was Good Friday! We also saw kiwis. They're totally cute.

Lake Taupo was cool. In the afternoon I headed down to the natural hot springs with Heather, Dave, Claudia and Will. The walk was much longer than anticipated! But we saw someone bungee along the way so that was good. The hot springs were boiling, I had to keep dipping in the river to stop from getting cooked. But a pretty cool place. It was busy with families and people there for the Easter weekend, a really lovely spot to chill out.

We were in bed early that night with alarms set for 5am- we were off to hike the Tongariro crossing! We ended up doing the 20km highlights track which was much harder work than I thought it would be. The track was unsteady and dangerous, but I only fell twice haha. The National Park is home to many sacred mountains with were gifted in 1887 by a Maori chief to the people of New Zealand so the land did not become separated and sold. Is was the first national park of New Zealand and the only national heritage site with duel status. Pretty special. The volcanic landscape was amazing- I have never seen anything like it before, and it was totally Lord of the Rings! The clouds were very low in the morning but by the time they cleared around midday we saw the amazing Mount Ngauruhoe (aka Mt Doom), the Emerald Lakes, the Blue Lake and the Soda Springs. The landscape was amazing and ever changing as we walked the crossing and the signs around the place saying what to do in the event of an eruption added an element of drama to the day! Haha. Cereal bars were my saviour and we were knackered by the time we got back to the hostel. I had a jacket potato for tea, FaceTimed my family, then headed out with the girls from the Kiwi bus to the Irish bar and then the Base bar for a dance although it was pretty quiet for Easter Saturday.

Easter Sunday was spent asleep on the bus on the way to River Valley. The long journey was made interesting by telling jokes and brain teasers and doing an albeit rubbish quiz. We arrived to the hostel and had a swim in the freezing cold river. It was bloody cold but YOLO! We also checked into our spooning room- a 32 bed dorm with all the beds pushed together! It was pretty crazy but good fun for one night- no longer though ha. We were all freezing and body heat didn't really help. The hot showers did though. Lovely. In the morning myself and Georgia headed for a walk along the river- gorgeous place with more beautiful scenery.

And now we are off to Wellington! Soon to leave the North Island and then head South. Top stuff.

Loving life, living the dream 2013.
7 weeks until home time! See you soon! Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I read this in the guest book from today's hostel:
Travelling is the only thing you buy that makes you richer

:) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx