We have been in New Zealand since the 15th January 2008 and we have been a bit slow on keeping up to date with the blog so here is a summary of what we have been up to since we have arrived.

As you may or may not know my (Ali) cousins Sam and Dan both live in Palmerston North with their partners Frazer and Penny and so we have spent a bit of time being led astray, I mean shown around by them.

For our first weekend in NZ we went to a small beachside town called Castlepoint, where we experienced the extremely cold water (after the bath like temperatures in Fiji it was a bit of a shock) and I was introduced the the card game Kings which turned out to be quite messy! Lets just say that the 75% rum we picked up in Fiji didn't last very long and Dan and Penny's friend Phoenix from America showed us her incredible hulk impression!

After our weekend at the beach it was time to go to Penny's house at Lake Taupo which was absolutely gorgeous. Having never swam in fresh water it was also a great experience and beats the beach every time. We were fortunate enough to have the use of Penny's boat and so both Tony and I had a go at biscuiting. For those who do not know this is where you hang onto a round disc and are dragged along behind the boat. It was great fun and actually easier than it looks. Even Tony managed to stay on for a while, although he did come off very quickly to start, this I think had more to do with the fact that he was dry and the guys driving the boat wanted him to get wet!

After nearly two weeks of fun in and around Palmerston North, we decided to head off up north to take a look around. We have purchased a car from Frazer and so it was easy for us to get around, we also borrowed a tent from him and Sam and we were set.

Our first stop was a seaside town called Tauranga, where it rained on our first day! Then we went to the neighbouring Mount Maunganui which is a town by the sea but has a mountain at one end. We managed to walk to the top and the views over both towns and the sea were lovely.

On Saturday 2nd February 2008 we went to a place called White Island which is about an hour and half from the north east coast of NZ. It is an active volcano where you can go for day trips. It is so active that we had to wear hard hats and gas masks! We had a tour of the inside of the crater where we saw the steam/gas vents, sulphur mounds and bubbling mud pools. We were also able to walk up to the edge of the centre of the volcano where there is a boiling pool of water. It was like nothing we have seen before and it is really hard to describe how amazing it is.

As the weather had been really lovely we were camping in most places that we stayed and (surprisingly) it was actually quite good fun. Unfortunatley this didn't last very long! On the 5th February we were staying in a small town called Wairoa and the weather had been so hot that we had been swimming at the mouth of the river where it meets the sea (which was cool). At about 9pm it started to rain and so we retired into the tent only to find that as the rain got heavier it began to leak. We lay in our sleeping bags as Tony held an umberella inside the tent to keep us dry. The rain eased off enough for us to go to sleep but at about 12:30am the wind had picked up so much that it ripped the side of the tent and the outer sheet was flapping off. We were totally exposed to the weather and there was no way of fixing the tent and so we had to bail out into the car. Needless to say we were both a bit soggy and had a pretty uncomfortable nights sleep.

Luckily the weather picked up the next day but obviously we couldn't camp as the tent was ruined. We drove to a town called Napier where we found a hostel to stay to get a good nights sleep and dry off.

Unfortunately that wasn't the last of our bad luck as when we arrived in Napier and parked up, we couldn't get the car to start again as the battery was flat! Between us we started to push the car along the road to jump start it and two guys came running over to help us. There wasn't enough power in the battery to jump it and one of the guys was really kind and helped us with his jump leads. After we got the car going and drove round for a bit we went back to the hostel.

However, this wasn't the end of it and once we stopped we tried the car again only to find that the battery was still dead!!!!! Fortunatley we experienced the Kiwi kindness again when the manager of the hostel offered to help us and diagnosed a broken battery. He kindly took us to buy a new battery and fitted it for us, so we were mobile again after a whole morning of stress!! So if ever you find yourself in Napier go and stay at Toad Hall because the manager there is great.

So after our first two week road trip we headed back to Palmerston North to give Fraser some stick about the car he sold us and tent he lent us (dodgy used car salesmen!?!)

I forgot to mention that we went to a place called Te Mata peak which is a national park and where we went on a trek around the park. We changed our shoes before the walk and it wasn't until sometime after we had left the park that Tony realised that he had lost one of his flip flops (the Kiwi's call them jandals). Needless to say he sulked for a while aftewards as they were his Croc's which we had purchased in America and which took him weeks to walk in, and which he described as like walking on air!

I of course thought this was very funny especially as I always find it strange when you see one shoe by the side of the road and can't believe that someone could be so stupid as to lose one shoe. Now I know.

When we got back we went to watch the speedway, which is different to speedway at home, and basically involves two teams of special cars racing round and trying to stop the other team from finishing the race and scoring points. It was great! There were cars going up the barriers, some on fire and mud being thrown up from the track!!

The following day we went to Wellington to watch the Black Caps play England in the one day series. Being my first cricket game (Tony had bigged it up) I was looking forward to being thrilled, but it turns out that it was the worst game of cricket ever and very boring! As you probably know England lost spectacularly and the best thing about this was that the game was over quickly!!!

On Monday 11th we headed off on the road again, (with our new tent we purchased) this time going towards Auckland on the North West coast. Along the way we stopped at New Plymouth where we went for a walk around Mount Taranaki (in the picture) which was awesome and involved a 4 hour trek over streams, up and down steep hills and over a very high swing bridge!

We arrived at Auckland in time for the weekend which was excellent timing as there was a Jazz and Blues streetfestival taking place on Saturday. It was brilliant, there were about 30 different bands playing along the street and we enjoyed a few red wines whilst grooving along!

After Auckland we drove all the way to the Northern most tip of NZ, which took about 4 hours, and went to see Cape Reinga which is where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific. It was an awesome sight as you can actually see where the two seas hit into each other. I also got to swim in the Tasman Sea (which is another first) and surf down the huge sand dunes at ninety mile beach (just down the road from Cape Reinga).

Along the way back down south we also visited the Bay of Islands where we stayed at a campsite on the banks of a river, almost opposite from the Huruhuru Falls. It is one of only two horseshoe falls in the world (the other being Niagra Falls) and although it isn't as big as Niagra it was beautiful and great to wake up to such a lovely view.

On Friday 22nd we went to Waitomo where they have a lot of caves, these caves are pretty spectacular but they are also home to glow worms which hang from the ceiling of the caves. You can do all kinds of treks and things through the caves and we decided to try black water rafting. Basically we had to get dressed up in wetsuits, boots and helmets. It was the least flattering thing you could wear, which was made worse by the fact that the guides look at you and give you a wetsuit that they think will fit. Unfortunatly I had to go through the humiliation of trying on two wetsuits both of which I could just about get onto my ankles before Tony had to help me heave them off! Everyone else in our group was kitted out and ready to go before I even had my trousers on!!

The outfit aside, the trip was amazing and we got to climb through caves and over rocks, jump off waterfalls and float along an underground stream on an inner tube in the dark!

This weekend we have been back at Palmerston North where we have been out on the town and watched Frazer winning his go-karting race. We are off to the South Island tomorrow where we will spend four weeks before returning to the north.

I have decided to leave the best for last and my highlight so far of the whole trip came this morning when Spurs beat Chelsea 2-1 in the Carling Cup Final. Those of you who know me well will know why this is such a glorious victory and after 12 years of watching us lose (and taking a lot of stick in th process) to Chelsea with Tony I have finally got to see us win, and not just win any game we won a cup final, and not only did we win but we were the better team, which makes the victory so much sweeter!