Hiya everyone,

After flying to Aukland via Sydney a bit of jet lag and sleep deprivation resulted in Aukland being a bit of a blur! Apparently there are some great parts to Aukland if you have a good look - apparently we didn't look hard enough. The combination of arriving somewhere that looked a lot like England and the cold and wet was not a winner. Once we left Aukland to head north to Paihia everything started looking up. The weather improved and the scenery was beautiful. Paihia was quite touristy but lovely and despite the cool weather and the odd shower it was great to be by the beach. We went for a walk through the forest to a waterfall (Huraru) and saw lots of baby herons in nests by the water's edge. The next day we were off bright and early to 90 mile beach (shown in the picture above). We hugged an old tree of the way (as you do) and then got on the beach in the coach. The beach was fantastic, although rather dangerous to drive on apparently given the number of wrecked cars around. We went sand surfing which was great, the excitment added to by the fact that it seems that my skiing accidents have given me a bit of a fear about travelling head first down a slope! We headed to Spirit bay where we saw the meeting of the Pacific and the Tasman which was beautiful. On our last day in Paihia we went on a boat trip looking for dolphins and were lucky to find about 100 common ones. They were swimming in the wrong direction for us to swim with them but we were only cms away from them when leaning over the front of the boat which was amazing.

Having recovered my phone, fleece and sunglasses from the cafe I had accidently left them in the day before, we headed back to Aukland. After a night stop off in the city of rain and greyness we got back of the Kiwi experience bus. We had a quick look at Aukland from Mt. Eden before heading South. We stopped at a hot water beach where you could dig your own hot pool in the sand and then visited the beautiful cathedral cove. We spent the night in Mercury bay at a little family run hostel. The next day we stopped at the lovely Karangahake Scenic reserve to go in the old mining tunnels. We then drove to the town of Matamata where Hobbiton was filmed for Lord of the Rings. Post hobbiton we headed to Rotorura. Apparently steam comes out from under the streets through the storm water drains and there are boiling mud pools and geysers. The steam we didn't see but the suplhur smell the city is also famous was very apparent!

The next day we headed for Taupo via Wantomo. At Taupo me and Amy both went sky diving which was amazing. The weather was beautiful and the scenery was stunning. I wasn't nervous but did have a couple of seconds of disbelief that I had jumped out of a plane once I was flying through the air! The next day we got up early to travel to Tongariro national part to do the Tongariro Alpine crossing. We got to pass the mountain used for Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings and once we'd dragged ourselves up the steep windy incline the view was unbelievable. It was well worth the early start. After Taupo we headed to a small lodge in a little valley for the night before continuing onto Wellington for the night. The 6 am start to get the ferry across to the South Island was a little painful after a friends birthday party the night before meaning we only had a few hours sleep. We're now in the south island in Nelson where we are staying for about a week to relax, visit Abel Talsman National park and do some wine tasting. Nelson appears to be a city built around its hundreds of coffee shops so seems perfect!