Last day in NZ! :( We arrived into Auckland yesterday afternoon, and wondered around Victoria Park Markets to look for souvenirs, we were catching the bus to arrive in St. Helier's at 3 to meet Dad's friend Maurice, who was kindly letting us stay for 2 nights! We arrived there and Maurice took us back to their house, and we had a lovely cooked dinner of lamb and veggies! We then watched the Royal wedding as they had it recorded and Arthur and I hadn't seen it yet...

We are now in the Bay of Islands, after a very long bus journey yesterday. We were picked up from our hostel and had a stop off in Matamata, aka Hobbiton! We weren't able to go to the set adn see 'the shire' but we did take our photo with the sign like keen tourists! We had an hour to kill in Auckland before our bus, and didn't do much really! We cooked dinner when we arrived here and then went to bed as early start today (as usual). Unfortunately the weather was...

Ah another amazing day! Started off the day with a hot mud bath and spa! We got picked up from our hostel and taken to Hell's Gate, the natural geysers and hot springs. There are a lot of them in Rotorua, as there is a lot of geothermal activity there. We were the only people on that first bus, so were the only people for our first hour or so at the hot pools! We started off by walking around all the pools and geysers. All of them had different names and were use...

Arrived in Rotorua from Taupo today, via Waitomo, to do the Black Water Rafting, in the Ruakuri Caves. We had a horribly early start again (got up at 6, after getting up at 5 yesterday!) and were picked up by our bus 20 minutes late! It took 3 hours to get to Waitomo, and we were dropped off at the centre. We were originally going to the 'Black Abyss' (I kind or regret not doing it now..) but the idea of being in the cave for 2.5 hours and the things you did scar...

Wow, had a fun yet scary day today! We did the Tongoriro Crossing. We had to get up at 5am to be ready for our 6am pick up. Slept most of the way on the bus as it took a few hours to get to the base of the mountains. They gave us some information sheets, with what to expect and I was pretty nervous after reading it as it was going to be pretty windy up there and I wasn't looking forward to the sheer drops on either side at one part of the crossing! They told us t...