Right, everyone, let me level with you all, I am, in fact, no longer in the ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE country which we call New Zealand, me and Harry are currently in the U.S of A. staying with some of his family friends who are brilliant! but after my last blog being deleted I now have to update you on ALL of our NZ events. I warn you all now (as I like to imagine that I'm interesting enough, that loads of people read this! haha) this is going to take long to read and even longer to write, as our 3 NZ weeks have been some of the most jam-packed, fun-filled weeks of our lives!

Firstly, let me just quickly sum up how good NZ is; it's SO INCREDIBLY, SPECTACULARLY, INCOMPREHENSIBLY, MARVELLOUSLY BRILLIANT! Okay, so now I've got that out, I'll get started.

So, me and Harry DID climb Rangitoto, the volcanic island, which was awesome, a really good way to start NZ, good weather and just a really nice climb, with good views of the city. On the island we also had a wander down to soem caves and just had a general walk around. We also managed to sign ourselves up to the Kiwi Experience bus service (our means of travel around NZ) after driving around looking for it for ages, only to discover it had moved! but when we arrived we grabbed a guide which talked us through what we would see and do over the next few weeks, which got us very excited!

Oh, before I forget the weather was brillaint, the whole 3 weeks, it only poured it down once and apart from the occassional cloudy day on the South Island, we were SO lucky with weather, really perfect temperature.

We had a brillant time staying at Steve's and Doreen's house for a few days, the UPMOST thanks to you both, it really was a brilliant way to start NZ, we got to see and do things that we otherwiswe wouldn't have and ate and slept REALLY well :P but all good things must come to an end and eventually we left the very comfy life we were leading and headed off into Auckland to start our Kiwi tour.

ABSOLUTELY belive the hype about the Kiwi Experience, it was amazing, we only had 12 people to start off in our bus (which earned us the name 'team mini' by our bus-driver, as there can be up to 50 people on the bus in summer time!!!). The size of our group worked out really well, it meant we got to know everyone really quickly and were allowed to do things a smaller group wouldn't do, including hopping off the bus to kiss a tree, which our bus driver told us brought good luck to passengers and it would be selfish not to do this. This turned out to be false. haha, brilliant! :)

We realised right from the very first day the bus was going to be very different from our Greyhound bus. Our driver on the first day decided to take an alternative route to our first stop and drove us past the faem where he gre up, which was really cool seeing. What's more, it was stunning!

Before we left Auckland we were taken to the top of Mt Eden, where we had panormaic views of the city, we thought THIS was attractive, just wait until we got out of the city!

Our first stop was to the famous hot water beach. The beach is situated on top of some volcanic plates making certain parts of the sand boiling, so at one point my feet were freezing, before I literally took 2 steps to the left and I had to hop up and down to stop my feet from burning. It was definitely a REALLY cool thing to start with...unusual but cool!:) Our next stop was a place called Cathedral Cove, one of NZ's most photographed beaches. It was awesome weather, so we had a wander down to a little beach and some iconic land-mark, a rock which has been eroded by the sea in a cool way (I'll show you photos...cooler to see). We then headed to our first hostel, in Mercury Bay, before heading to bed we decided to buy some lime-flavoured milk....NEVER under ANY circumstances try this drink....EVER!!! :)

The next day we headed to Rotorua or 'Rotten-Rua' as it is also known as, due to the geizers that are continuously blowing out steam etc. It's really cool, there was actually steam coming out of the drains and homes etc. AWESOME. To appreciate tis to the full extent and get a ggo look of the geizers we went to a museum, which showed us some traditional carvers at work, the geizers, BOILING mud and a kiwi bird, our first look at the national symbol. After this we headed to the top of a huge hill to do something callled Luging where you race down to the bottom, on what is literally a little cart with a steering wheel and brakes....GOOD. TIMES :) In the evening we went to a Maori (the native Kiw people) Cuture Show, which was incredible, it was a re-creation of a traditional village from the 1600's, the people (all from Moari families and dressed in traditional gear) told us all about the history, showed us dancing and singing, told Maori myths and legends, showed us tools and clothes, showed us the traditional face (big eyes, tongue sticking out) and BEST of all cooked a darn good dinner, cooked under-ground using steamed rocks, giving it a really good smoky taste...luckily the ice-cream wasn't cooked underground! It really was an amazing night, a DEFINITE thing I would say you HAVE to go and see.

Oh, forgot to mention that we stopped off in Hobbiton on the way to Rotorua, i.e, had our photo taken in front of a sign saying 'Welcome to Hobbiton'...it was an amazing experience...seriously, I'm not even joking!

Next, we travelled from Rotorua to a small town called Waitomo, where I did a thing callled 'The Black Abyss', where you're taken underground for about 3 hours in a cave! SO MUCH FUN! First we abseiled a 35 metres into the lime-stone cave, which was brilliant dun. We then set of in a =nd arounf the cave, doing zip-wires in the dark, jumping into FREEEEEEEEZING cold water (remember it was winter and in a cave) where we got into rubber rings and paddled up stream before stopping, relaxing and looking up at the ceiling where there were millions of tiny glow-worms, which, in the dark, looked like you were staring up at stars, just beautiful...but enough of that and back to the HARD-CORE stuff, we walked through fast streams and climbed watefalls, simply awesome. In the evening we had a group meal, which was awesome, some guys prepared a curry! A good time had by all!

The next morning we prepared to leave Waitomo but NOT before we went to a farm show, which I have to admit I really really enjoyed, mainly because I got to milk a cow...a sticky experience but a brilliant one none-the-less. When this was over me and another girl went and did zorbing, that thing where you're put in a big ball and get rolled down a hill, it was stupidly fun, being soaking wet rolling down a hill in a massive beach ball! :) We then went on a walk which was cool and picked up 2 American guys to join our happy gang (one of whom me and Harry are meeting up with next week in Colorado, which will be cool). We had a brief stop at a 100 year old tree...impressive. In the evening we arrived in a small toen called Taupo where a group of us headed down to some hot springs. This was a really surreal experience being outside in the cold winters evening and then jumping into really hot streams! Gotta love NZ and random hot things! We had an early evening because we we had an early start the next day to hike on the Tongario Crossing.

OK, so, the next morning, 4:30am, The Tongario Crossing, probably my favourite thing I have ever done, literally so beautiful, a few of the girls were dissapointed and I judged them severely! haha. You have to google it, looking at photos of it in the summer, it honetly isn't as pretty as it is in the winter and although we didn't reach the top we saw some amazing things! and because we didn't reach the top we got a free ticket to do it again...se if I'm ever back...

...aw, now, I'm thinking about it again, it makes me miss NZ. In the evening we watched the rugby in a local bar...got in to some of that good ol' kiwi spirit.

The next morning we left early to head off to a place called 'River Valley'. This place was S.T.U.N.N.I.N.G. Definitely my favourite place in NZ. When we arrived we went exploring around climbed some big, tall hill to the top and watched the sun set a little bit. River Valley is like a cross between the Lake District and Scotlan...just so gorgeous, to the extent that I actually got up early the next morning to have a wander around on my own...BRILLIANT. Really nice hostel, only down-fall it took 2 hours for me to make dinner, as there was only one hob. I genuinelly found it painfully hard to leave the next morning and I even asked the lady on reception if I could work there in the future! I look forward to it! :)

We soon arrived at our last stop in NZ, the capital, Wellington, where we went to a museum, which was really good. At the museum one of our friends bumped into his friend, who told him he had booked a cheap All Blacks rugby ticket, so him, me and Harry soon jumped on-board with this plan (after texting Dad for his advice on the subject...what a hero)!

And so...that ends the North Island...I'm going to save this page first, before it gets lost again but continue to hear about the rest of our New Zealand adventures.

Talk to you in a sec.

Andrew :)