We left early at 7:30am and drove back through the hills. We were heading from the east coast to almost the west coast. It was a long scenic drive. We stopped at a supermarket for lunch. There we bought ingredients for dinner that night. We carried on and arrived in Waitomo just after 1pm. We checked into our hostel called The Kiwipacker and got ready for our afternoons activity. We were doing black water rafting. This involved floating through caves in the dark ...

We met the Kiwi bus at about 8:30am. Our new driver was called Josh and there were lots more people also getting on the bus. Altogether there were 22 of us. The first thing we did was go to the Kiwi Experience office to book all our buses for the next few weeks. After that the bus drove to the top of Mount Eden. It is the highest extinct volcano in Auckland. From the top you get a really good view of the city and of the crater. We spent about 15 minutes at the to...

We arrived back in Aucklandin the evening. We went to get something to eat, had one drink in the bar and went to bed. The next day we hung out on the roof of the roof of the hostel in the morning. It was a nice sunny day. After lunch we went down to the harbour to see the events in the rugby world cup opening ceremony. We walked around and could see the boats getting ready but the quay side was already really crowded and we didnt have a brillient view. We decide...

I got up at 6:30am ready to catch the bus at 7:20. I walked to the end of the road and saw the green Kiwi bus coming. The driver welcomed me on board, I found a seat and sat down. There were 8 others on the bus, 2 girls 5 lads and a man. The driver was called Jared. We stopped for a drink and toilet break before arriving in Paihiaat the Bay of Islands. It was lunch time. We booked our activites and went to the supermarket to buy some food. That evening we had the...

After a very pleasant flight I landed at 4am on Friday 2nd September. I had completely missed the 1st September as we flew over the international date line. I went to collect my bag and mine was one of the last out. Next was security and New Zealand are very tight on security. I had to declare I had hiking boots that may have soil still attached to them. So that meant queueing for a bit longer. The lady inspected them and took them to be cleaned. I bet she wonder...