25/01/2010 - New Zealand was the hardest country ever to get into, and it didnt help that we landed at midnight so were both really tired when we arrived. I had my hiking boots in my bag so had to declare them and have my bag searched. Also a flight had just landed from china and those people do not know how to form an orderly queue like us english people, and they kept pushin in so by the time me and tom got through we were so pleased to see my aunty and uncle, Linda and Keith standing there waiting for us! I also got searched on the way when we landed in sydney to get the conecting flight to auckland. They patted me down and took swabs from my body and my bag :( bad times. Back to Auckland, we got in the car and they drove us to the hostel we had booked for the night, me and tom were impressed as it looked pretty decent to us baring in mind all the other hostels we have stayed in but linda and keith were a bit wary.

Day 2 - We had a good nights sleep then had a full english breakfast provided by linda and keith, it was funny because there was us with our full breakfast and all the other hostel goers had there cheap cereals and toast looking at us with jealousy!! after breakfast keith took us for a drive around the city showing us the main parts, and going up a bus only road!! Then it was time for them to go to the airport to catch their flight back to Christchurch. At the airport I took over the driving which was a little strange at first as the car was an automatic and i'd only ever reversed my mums automatic before but i soon got the hang. As Auckland looked like most of the other cities we have been to we decided not to stay another night and instead hit the road straight from the airport. Keith and Linda had told us about glowworm caves in Waitomo and said that they were meant to be quite good so we put that into the sat nav and made our way there. On the way we stopped to get some drinks for the car and when we got back in we couldnt get the engine to start, i tried and tom tried but nothing was happening so i gave keith a call and he asked if we had pressed the button for the immobiliser!!!!Woopsy blonde moment there! So we were back on the road and it didnt take us too long to get Waitomo. There wasnt much in the town, just the cave centre, a campsite and a little restuarant. We booked onto the cave trip which was pretty cool, there were loads of glowworms on the roof and they take you on a boat underneath them which was really nice. When we came out we decided perhaps not to stay there for the night as there was not much there and instead typed in Rotorua ointo the sta nav which was only 2 hours away so we drove there instead. When we arrived the information site was shut however there was a little phone booth outside where we got print outs for the hostels so we drove up to Base hostel and asked if they had any room, the woman said yes but the reception was closing in 5 minutes so if we wanted to stay there to hurry and check in. After we had checked in a put our bags in our room we went to the bar next door for some dinner as we were both starving. For 10 dollars we had fish n chips and pint, and it was actually a pint, not a scooner of half pint that they have in australia! AFter that we went to bed as we were both pretty tired.