G'Day from Noo Zullund aye-bro! So we left South America on the 13th and arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on 15th (going over the time line, hence losing a day!!) still we were awake for over 36 hours so took a few days to sort ourselves out!! First impressions of Auckland was a really nice clean city with normality!!! All Kiwi 's seem to be sooo proud of there country... aye... no wonder... its looks amazing and think its gonna be great!!! Not actually that much to do in Auckland itself, most travellers get in and out of Auckland ASAP as there is so much else to see. We have signed ourselves up onto a tour bus company called 'Stray Bus', its a new company, kind of a competitor to the Kiwi experience BUT although there is a fair amount of drink involved, its not full of 18/19yr old piss heads it more 25-35 year olds and gets you more off the beaten track and see bits of NZ you wouldn't usually see. Its a big orange hop on hop off bus so you can stop where you like for as long as you like, but when you are on the bus the driver is also your tour guide and stops off everyday, for supermarket, cash and liquor and books you into hostels and/or drops you off where ever you are going and you do various free and paid for activities, group meals, etc... Seems like its gonna be a blast!! Just incase you are wondering where Andrew Doyles' angelic mug is in all the photos from now on .... unfortuanltey the travelling trio is now only the travelling Duo. He has gone off to explore NZ as a solo traveller... money is burning a whole in his pocket and he has got the adrenalin bug... his first stop is a 4 day PADI diving course up in the North Island.... he is also doing to Stray bus, so no doubt we will see him along route... Suprised he managed to stick it out travelling with 2 girls as long as he did!!! Fair Play to the man! Our first stop was almost at the top of the North Island, in Pahia, Bay of Islands, most beautiful scenery and the weather was so sunny. Here we went swimming with Dolphins!!, Something we have wanted to do all our lives and it definaltey lived up to expectations....Especially as we got it for FREE!! Tara won a free sailing day, but has done it before so she managed to blag it and get two free swim with dolphins tickets instead!!! What a girl!! It was amazing, a pod of about 10 wild dolphins swimming around in the water with us, playing... 8 of them swam right past Elaine at about arms length, she was so overcome and excited that she forgot to breathe, choked and swallowed more water than she was in!! It was probably one of the the best moments of our trip so far, especially for Elaine!! Next we headed to Hahai, and then to Raglan on the West Coast, its the surf capital of New Zealand, the hostel is amazing, with balconies over looking the sea, a sauna, flying fox rope slide, massive communal area and really friendly staff, so nice infact that we decided to hop off here for a few days and chill... we are still here!!! Elaine had a proper surf lesson, and managed to just about stand up by the end of the lesson but decided that she's probably not going to take it up proffessionally!! We are hopping back on the bus tomorrow and next we head on inland to Waikimo Caves for a spot of abseiling, crawling though rocks and black water rafting... then on to to do some white water sledging which we really can't wait for!!!! We are seriously considering the sky dive, we really CANNOT leave NZ having not done a Skydive - it would be just wrong!! Update ya again soon!!