Hello everyone,

I know its been an age since i wrote on here and this update is going to be a rather large one so bear with me.

Since last time we have finished the last stage of Australia and have spent over a week in New Zealand! The last two places in Australia were Magnetic Island and Cairns. Magnetic Island is a small idyllic island of the coast of Townsville, North Queensland and was also our last stop travelling with Dave before he left for Vietnam and Cambodia. Dave only stayed one night whereas Brett, Me, Leila and Aileen were staying four. As it was his last night we decided to go for a few drinks and enter the weekly quiz that had been put on. We came 3rd in the quiz, winning 3 Jugs of beer, and my paper aeroplane also came second in the paper aeroplane contest! The rest of Magnetic Island was very laidback, with the days activities usually consisting of swimming, snorkelling, sunbathing, playing football and lying around in the hammocks. Its pretty nice.

We left Magnetic Island for Cairns, our last destination in Australia, after an emotional goodbye with leila whom I wouldnt be seeing again for 6 weeks. On the way to Cairns we stopped off at a crocodile farm where we were able to watch crocodiles get fed, feed the kangaroos and have a massive water python around our necks! Cairns itself is a pretty small town and everything was within walking distance which was nice. However, our short time in Cairns was not the best. After the first night we discovered that our room had a bedbug infestation and we had to freeze all our belongings for 24 hours. Therein lied the problem as we had a plane to catch to Auckland in around 18 hours. That subsequently led to us collecting our clothes from the freezer and re-packing at 3 in the morning, which wasnt ideal.

And so it was with a heavy heart we left Australia, our home for the past two months. We were, however, excited about the prospect of New zealand, the adventure stop in our world tour! We arrived in Auckland late evening and only had two days before we set off down south, so it was a rather uneventful time. We did though get invited to Oktoberfest by a German and met two girls, Faye and Jodie, we would be travelling with for the next 3 weeks. Our first stop in New Zealand was a small place a few hours east of Auckland called Whitianga. There wasnt a great deal to do there but we did get a home cooked Spaghetti Bolognese for the first time in nearly 3 months which was awesome.

We left the next morning for Rotorua, a small town famous for its geothermal activity. In Rotorua we got the chance to attend a Maori cultuarl evening. Out of a bus load of 35 people, one of us would have to be cheif of our bus, and have to come face to face with the Maori initiation process. I thought that sounded rather fun so i volunteered to do it and, with three other 'cheifs' from other buses we were head of our respective tribes. I got through the evening relatively unscathed, with special privileges such as a front row seat and a small gift, until the bus ride home where I was thrust on the microphone by the bus driver and told to sing! After embarrassing myself with Wonderwall, Don't look back in Anger and Don't Stop me Now on my own infront of 35 people, I was relinquished of my position as cheif.

The next destination was Waitomo, another small town where we got the chance to go caving in the huge cave system. We were a bit apprehensive about it actually going ahead due to the high water levels but our fears were eased when we were told we could do it the following morning. Caving, also known as Black Water Rafting, was incredible and it involved things like a 40m abseil, a zip line and climbing up underground waterfalls! Both Brett and I concurred it was one of the best things we'd ever done.

The next few days of activities were not so incredible. We were scheduled to do a skydive at our next stop Taupo, but when we got there it was cancelled due to wind and cloud. We were though given the option to come back the next morning at 7:30 to see if it was feasable to jump, which we duly accepted. We woke up to clear blue skies and with a bolt of excitement. We waited at the skydive centre for two hours, watching people go up and come down before us, including Liz and Suzanne, two girls from our bus, before the clouds folled in and we were told we couldn't do it. The only conselation we had was that we could do a skydive in the South Island.

The next activity stop was white water rafting in a tiny secluded spot called River Valley. We did manage to also get out and play a round of golf on the worst course in the history of the universe, and it eventually descended into everyone trying to round up the sheep. We thought it was a good time to stop though when one of the sheep panicked and fell over and couldnt get back up. John, one of the guys on our bus, hoisted up the maimed sheep and it hobbled off with a definate limp. It was time to go inside. The night itself was uneventful as everyone got a relatively early night for white water rafting early in the morning. We were woken up to a voice in the room saying that water levels in the river were too high and we couldn't go rafting. There was not conselation here as River Valley was the only place we could go white water rafting. We were gutted.

We left River Valley, rather annoyed, for our last place on the North Island, Wellington, the Capital of New Zealand. We are currently on our last day here and it has been a fun place. It has a good nightlife scene here and I also got to watch a game of rugby between two regional teams while Brett went up the cable car (pictured) with Faye and Jodie, the girls we are travelling with at the moment. The game itself was a cracking match, with the home side kicking the winning drop goal with only 5 seconds left.

As for our future plans, we have 12 days left in New Zealand, which we will spend on the South Island. We have a really cool group of people with us but a lot have left for the South Island already. The plan is to meet up in Queenstown, party central in New Zealand, for a reunion.

Hopefully I will be able to write a bit more frequently from no on so it is not such a mammoth read.

Til next time. x