Hi guys

Ok, I have been a bit rubbish at keeping this blog up to date but since I've been in New Zealand its been non stop. I got to Auckland last week and have made my way down to Wellington (which is where I am at the minute).

Auckland was lovely, spent a good couple of days walking around the city. The first day I went up the Sky Tower and took some amazing pictures of the city. Actually ended up there for a couple of hours purely becasue it was just so cool to just sit there and look at the city, the surrounding islands, the yachts, the harbour bridge...just so relaxing!!! The following day I took a bus trip around the city to a place called Bastion Point which had more great views of the city. The bus then went onto a place called Kelly Turltons Antarctic and Aquatic Experience which had penguins, recreations of Shackleton and Scott's huts they stayed in whilst exploring Antarctica and an aquarium type tunnel you could walk through to see sharks, sting rays and tortoises. Anyway, that was pretty good. From there I went to the main museum in Auckland, whcih had the usual museum stuff but also some great exhibitions of the Maori culture. We drove past Eden Park (boooo...it has nothing on Twickers) and also went to the top of Mount Eden.

That was Auckland in a nutshell pretty much as I then puicked up my first tour from there on the third day - and this is where its just flown past!!!

On the first two days we went to the Bay of Islands (another place I'd like to live), had a boat trip out to the Hole in the Rock (which does exactly what it says on the tin). On the second day we took a trip out to find dolphins with the intention of swimming with them, however the one school we actually did find had a baby with them so we couldn't do it - but the seeing them was enough for me. Beautiful creatures. After the dolphin searching we took a catamaran around the Bay of Islands whcih was awesome, it was so great to just lie on the trampoline in the sun chilling out...hmmm!!!!

From the Bay of Islands we drove to Waitomo, where we did the black water rafting - bloody brilliant!! Its was very cold but worth every minute. We travelled through caves walking, swimming and floating on rubber rings until we got to one cave that had the most amazing glow worms - so beautiful!! From there we carried on through the cave in complete darkness so the glow worms acted almost like a path out of the cave...very cool.

Anyway, need to stop now as my internet time is nearly up. Will continue again soon!!

Take care and stay in touch.

Bye!!