Hi Everyone,

Hope you are all well. Not long until we're home now. Here's our New Zealand entry.

We arrived in New Zealand at 6 in the morning, caught the transfer to Auckland city center and luckily the bus dropped us right next to our hostel. The hostel was huge. It had a big canteen (16 hobs and 5 fridge freezers), 25 computers, 4 floors with 45 rooms on each floor and even a travel centre, bar and office where you could go to apply for work. We couldn't check in until 12 so we went for an early morning walk around the town to find our bearings and try and get some food shopping. On our way back from the supermarket we stumbled across a kebab shop that was showing the England v Kazakhstan game, fantastic I thought and dragged Andy in kicking and screaming, yeah right! Where ever you go you can't get away from football! Back at the hostel we cooked a fry up in the canteen including baked beans and brown sauce, food Andy had been craving for months. We then hung around the computer room until we could check in.

The rooms were basic but nice, we un-packed and then decided to visit the Sky tower, which was located 5 minutes walk from our hostel. At 328 metres the Sky Tower is the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere, offering breath-taking views for more than 80 kilometers in every direction. The tower had a revolving restaurant at the top, plus a bungy jump platform, restaurants, bars and a casino, hooray!! Andy had been threatening to bungy jump since we were in South America, I pointed out this was the perfect place and we even had a discount voucher to get money off. Apparently it wasn't high enough for Andy, and so he didn't do it, what a chicken! We looked around the Sky City complex and booked the revolving restaurant at the top for the Saturday night plus tickets to Kelly Tarltons (an undersea aquarium). We also tried to go into the casino (it's hard to kick a gambling addiction with casino in every place we stay!) in but I didn't have ID, thank goodness for that. (I made a mental note to take my driving license next time we went out!!)The jet lag started to kick in so we went back to our room and thought we would have a nap at about 6pm but ended up sleeping through until 8 the next day!! Whoops!!

The next day we made breakfast in the canteen and went to get our transfer to the aquarium. The first area to see when we arrived was a reenactment of the Antarctic explorer's adventure and their journey and living conditions, which was really interesting. There was also a test where you put your hands in freezing water and see if you can last 30 secs. I lasted 10 secs, Andy stepped in saying he could do better, but managed the same. I don't know how the explorers managed to live in the Antarctic for months on end. Actually they all pretty much died from it so there you go.We then saw the sea turtles, sting rays and a dead giant squid. Not sure how they stay in such small pools. We then had to get into a snow mobile and were driven through a penguin enclosure - didn't realize penguins can grow up to 1 metre tall. After getting out of that we walked through an area where they were feeding sting rays and giant turtles - not sure I would have got into a pool full of hungry sting rays but the person feeding them did have an extra thick wet suit on. We then got onto a conveyer belt which took us slowly through an underwater tunnel. Above us were a wide range of exotic fish, sting rays and sharks. Our heads were inches from the fish, just reinforced glass in between us. The sting rays glided over and you could see their faces smiling, the sharks were quite scary looking I thought, Andy would agree with me (for once) later in Fiji.

We got a transfer back to our hostel and went along to the bar where they had free wine and cheese tasting. The reps were there to talk to everyone about NZ and what trips were available. We just ate, drank then left! Later that evening we made pasta in the hostel canteen then went out to paint the town red, white, and blue. We found a lively Irish bar (not very imaginative I know) but it was heaving and had live music. We got a front row seat and sat there singing along all night. People were up on the bar dancing and it was a great atmosphere, the time flew by and before we knew it was 2am. We went home but sat up drinking back at the hostel for a couple more hours, before falling asleep around 4am!

Next day was a bit of a right off, due to a hefty hang over. We chilled out in the day and spent an hour or so online booking transport and accommodation for a trip over the next few days. We got the itinerary from one of the travel brochures but decided to do it ourselves saving hundreds of dollars! We are very good at this traveling malarkey now! That night we went up to the sky tower observatory which had a glass floor elevator and glass floor panels in the outer rim of the observatory, not for those who are scared of heights that's for sure. We walked round for ½ hour then went down a few levels to the revolving restaurant. We were still a little hung over so ordered just the one bottle of wine, and food that was to die for. We both had fish dishes, one of the best meals we had had in our trip so far. We didn't make it a late one as we had to be up early the next day to check out and start our self made trip.

Next morning at 7am we made a packed lunch before we left the hostel then headed to the bus station to catch a bus to Waitome, which are famous for their glow worm caves. We had to catch two buses which took a few hours and we arrived around 12pm. We had booked a night in a camp site, but I know what you're thinking, and No we weren't camping in a tent, we had reserved a chalet. (I think I've done enough camping for a life time!) It was really cheap but lovely, situated in miles of rolling countryside. We dumped our bags in the room, and went straight out to see the caves nearby. We decided to do the triple cave tour each cave having different rock formations and glow worms. It was quite out of season so hardly anyone was around, the town was really small, eg 1 village store and 1 pub, that was it. It had a bit of a wolf creek feel (the film where the backpackers get kidnapped and murdered), especially when a truck pulled over next to us when we were walking down a deserted road and asked us if we needed a ride. Don't worry I've seen the film and wasn't falling for that one!! Anyway, we met our guide who was taking us around the first cave. No one else was visiting this cave so we had a private tour. It wasn't the best cave out of the three, it was quite small, and to be honest the guide didn't say much just walked in front turning the lights on so we could see the rocks above and below. Lots of stalagmites and stalactites - which were quite amazing. Next we went to a much bigger cave which you entered through a 50 metre deep winding staircase. Our guide had actually helped excavate these caves so he knew his stuff. We saw some interesting rock formations and also lots of glow worm. The bit that glows is actually the poo of the worm, it didn't smell though so that was good. We could have done black water rafting in these caves or even abseiling, but I've also seen the film Decent so decided against this. Next stop was the main glow worm caves. Here we were lucky to have a guide whose great grandfather had discovered the caves so she had lots of stories to tell. She also sang a traditional Maori song so show off the acoustics. We could take a boat ride in these caves which took us through a tunnel filled with hundreds of thousands of glow worms, there were no lights atall, everything was lit up just by the glow worm poo. It was amazing, unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures. We came out on a river and got off the boat, then headed back to the camp site.

Once again we went to take a nap and slept through until the next morning, all this traveling and sight seeing really takes it out of you.Next day we were up early again to catch a bus to our next destination, Rotorua. This place is the traditional Maori area in New Zealand, that has real villages with thermal spas and natural boiling mud pools.We had to get another 2 buses to get to Rotorua and arrived at around 1pm. We had booked a hostel in a really central location, which was just around the corner from the bus station. We checked in and the owner helped us choose the best places to visit, he recommended a village called 'Te Whakarewarewatanga O Te Ope Taua A Wahiao' (we had to learn to say this when we arrived)meaning "The uprising of the warriors of Wahiao" plus evening entertainment at Mitai, set in the bush, with warriors in traditional dress, a hangi meal and dancing including the Haka. We rushed out to the village and arrived just in time to see the afternoon show. Here we saw some of the local tribal dances and songs, which were really interesting. Then we met with our guide who was to take us around the village. This part is in the top 3 of our favorite places in the whole of our world trip. Our guide lived in the village and she explained their culture and beliefs and showed us their thermal spas, mud pools and the nearby exploding geysers (pronounced geezers as in cockney geezers). They still use the thermal springs to cook their vegetables, plus the boiling mud and plants for medicinal purposes, they also bathe in the mud too! Our guide took us to where she had her food for that evening cooking. It was in a hangi oven which is a pit with hot stones underneath cover with a slab of concrete, she had a casserole cooking, how bizarre!! The whole place smelt very eggy, which wasn't very pleasant, but was due to the geysers nearby, we went to have a look and saw them exploding. After the tour we walked back to our hostel. The whole town had thermal springs scattered around and the eggy smell follows you everywhere, or was that Andy???

We had about ½ hour before we were collected for our night out at Mitai. We were led into a large tent where we'd later have our meal, then shown where they were cooking the food in a massive hangi oven. We then were led through the trees to a river and saw an ancient canoe (waka) paddling down the Wai-o-whiro stream the warriors inside were chanting. Next we went to where a stage was set up like how the Maoris lived many years ago. A group of men and women dressed up in traditional dress then performed many dances and the famous Haka. We filmed it so we'll try and get it up on the blog. It was brilliant, with the bulging eyes and slapping, quite scary really!After this we went up for our meal. The food was lovely and we went up several times for more. After the meal, they took us for a night walk through the woodland and to see the glowworms that live in their ponds.

We were then taken back to our hostel and we fell asleep straight away after another busy day. We were leaving the following day to go back to Auckland so once again up early to catch a bus back. We had booked into the nice hostel we'd stayed in before for our last night in New Zealand and had a quiet night before our flight the next day to Fiji.

We had originally booked to stay only one night in New Zealand giving us 2 weeks in Fiji, but after doing some research before we arrived realized there was so much to see and decided to change our flights and stay in New Zealand longer. This meant our time in Fiji was cut short but well worth it. Plus 1 week doing nothing on a beach in Fiji is enough (wow I never thought I'd say that).Log on again soon as we're post up our Fiji experience in the next few days.Still missing you all lots.See you soon.V & A.xx