Kia Ora!!! (That's apparently how they say 'Hello' in New Zealand - am yet to hear anyone actually say this though! They all seem to make do with Hello, Hi or Hey!) But anyway, yeah, we're now in New Zealand! We arrived in Auckland on Saturday afternoon and so far we're really enjoying it. It's an amazing place, beautiful country and really nice people - so far so good! But to back-track slightly (will try not to go into narrative over-drive as I did before, but who knows!).... We ended up staying in Melbourne with Lisa's brother for 10 days. Had a really good time there, it was nice to be in one place for a decent amount of time. We spent a lot of time walking round the city, visited the old 'Gaol' where they kept Ned Kelly before they executed him - bit eerie but very interesting! Also went to Tiffany's and made a fairly lame attempt at pretending to have money so we could try on lots of expensive jewellery! The assistants in there humoured us for a while then made it clear that they were not going to waste any more of their time on 2 grown up women regressing to being 9 year old girls and wanting to dress up in the most extravagent jewellery they can find! I think the big giveaway was when I tried to put my ice cream wrapper in what I thought was the rubbish bin but was in fact the umbrella stand! We did lots of other touristy things, like going up the big Rialto Tower where you have views round the city, went to the beach and the pool and had ourselves a bit of a 'sun bake' (Aussie for sun bathing!) and er..... the Neighbours Tour! I know, we couldn't be much more the typical English backpackers, but it had to be done! We were picked up by this mini bus in the city which was emblazoned with a huge Neighbours logo so we were never going to be able to do it discreetly and keep our dignity! Got to visit the 'rea'l'Ramsey Street (although it's not called this, they bring a fake sign on the bus for you to hold in the street when you get there for your photos - it's all just too cheesey!) We got photos of us outside the houses like the proud Pommie tourists that we are! I did feel sorry for the people who acutally did live in the houses when we were poncing around outside - until I learned that they are paid the equivalent of another income so Neighbours can film in their street and the front of their houses 2 afternoons a week! We also got to see videos on the bus of 'classic' episodes such as Scott and Charlene's wedding, Daphne and Des's wedding and Daphne's death! Got to re-live my childhood adoration for Jason Donovan and Kylie, it was great! We went out and had too much to drink again on our last night in Melbourne and ended up being really hungover the next day when we were due to catch our flight to Sydney. It's a long story but put simply, we were too busy making sure we got our cooked breakfast and relaxed a bit too much so we missed our flight! Despite sprinting into the airport and straight to the check in desk with Lisa's brother, John struggling behind with both our backpacks, they wouldn't let us on the plane! (We'd missed the check in closure time by about 10 minutes.) Because it wasn't the main Melbourne airport, and tiny one outside the city we had to wait 5 hours for the next flight and pay another $75 to get this one. We ended up being quite well known and making friends with the security and baggage check in staff there (of which there was only about 5!) So, we missed the Mardi Gras parade in Sydney and didn't arrive in the city until gone 11, so just in time to see the messy side of the Mardi Gras celebrations! Never have I seen so many men dressed up as women staggering around blind drunk and re-adjusting slipping wigs and boobs! Lisa's friend Angie met us in Sydney and we spent a couple of days with her in the city, going to the aquarium - saw lots of sharks! and also did a cruise round the harbour which was really good as we got to see lots of other parts of the city while lazing on top of a boat in the sun and sipping a beer! That's my kind of sightseeing! We managed to catch a couple of comedy gigs in Sydney as their annual comedy festival was just starting, and that was a good laugh! (Obviously, it's comedy - Doh!) We managed to get very drunk during the first one we went to and we were still suffering when we went to see the second one the next night! We went to the second comedy gig with Sarah, our friend Lucy's sister who we had met up with before when we were first in Sydney. (lucy - I imagine this will be weird for you reading this, as you know it all already!) Sarah was pregnant and about 2 weeks before being due so we had a very civilised and sober evening, but really good fun with her! The point to this story is that a couple of days later, despite Lisa telling Sarah that first time babies rarely come early, Sarah went into labour. She had a baby girl just after we left Sydney which was a shame as it would have been nice to have seen her. (I know most of you don't know Lucy or Sarah, but I thought everyone likes to hear about babies being born and we only just missed it - Lisa could've helped deliver it! So, you all get to hear about it!) Onto more holidayish news! ....We wanted to have a surfing lesson while we were still in Australia as we hadn't had a chance to before so we got a train back up to Newcastle and stayed with Angie who lives there and booked a lesson for while we were there. It was AMAZING! But such hard work - we only had an 80 minute lesson but we were exhausted afterwards (again, I had to have my un-fitness highlighted to me!) We had a really cool instructor who gave us a 5 minute brief and a quick practise of what to do on the beach and then took us straight into the water to get going - it was just me and Lisa in the lesson! We both managed to stand up, although not for very long! However, on Lisa's last go she stood up and stayed up for ages! I kept managing to stand up on the board but then would get so excited that I'd managed to stand up, I'd forget to think about all the other things I was supposed to do to keep me up there! Apparently the way you'd describe the waves we were surfing was 1-2ft, (this sounds pathetic, but I can assure you they weren't!) but the instructor said that this wasn't the actual size of the waves, really they were about 3-4ft high. I have no idea, and neither did he, about why they describe the waves like this, makes absolutely no sense, but he said this was what we needed to tell people when we said we had been surfing so there you go! Was brilliant fun though and we're both now determined to go down to Newquay and try it again! We managed NOT to miss our flight to New Zealand on Saturday despite only having about 2 hours sleep the night before (the joys of hostel dormitories!) We went down to the marina in Auckland on our first evening there as they had a boat show going on that weekend and it was really busy and lively down there. Had a fantastic curry (not very typical Kiwi cuisine I know!) and one beer, then went back to our hostel where we were tucked up in bed by about 10.30 we were so knackered! (We really know how to live it up on a Saturday night!) We went swimming on Sunday - really felt the need to do some exercise, and were able to have a sauna and spa etc and pamper ourselves a little bit! We enjoyed it so much we got up early and went again on Monday morning, my body was in shock afterwards though, 2 days in a row doing exercise, it wondered what the hell was going on! We wandered and drove round the city a bit more on Sunday (we've hired a car for the 3 weeks we're here). Went also went to the Auckland museum on Monday - another dose of culture for us both and we are now practically experts on Maori history and how volcanoes work - they have tons of volcanoes over here! We then drove to a small town called Tairua and stayed there Monday night so we could go to Hot Water Beach in the morning. Hot water beach is where you can go and dig a hole and have yourself your own thermal pool - at the right time with the tides etc. Apparently the water there is so warm because it's part of the volcanic area in NZ, but the weather wasn't great when we arrived there so we chickened out of getting back in our swimmers and digging our own pool! We had a bit of a wander along the beach then made our way over to the other side of the island to Waitomo where we stayed last night. It's really good having the car and being able to just pick up and leave when ever we feel like it and the country is so beautiful that it really is enjoyable to drive around. (I know people go on about NZ being really pretyy - but it really is! We've had some spectacular views and taken loads of photos and we've only been driving around for a couple of days!) And now, for the most exciting thing we've done...... 'black water rafting' - well more like black water tube rafting, or something like that! We got up early this morning and did this at the Waitomo caves near where we'd stayed. It was brilliant fun! You go down into the caves and float along the stream that flows through there on a big rubber ring and throw yourself off waterfalls! We also saw lots of glow worms in the caves which was pretty amazing. The water was freezing cold even though we had thick wet suits on - we looked SOOOOOOOOO attractive! (NOT!) The photos are a real sight, we just look ridiculous! It was absolutely brilliant though, can't describe it enough and say how good it was, even tho it was a bit scary! So, I have 3 minutes left now on the internet and realise I have somehow managed to write yet another mammoth email to you all despite promising I would try to keep it down this time - SORRY! Hope you are all well and enjoyed the snow (we heard there'd been quite a bit in England since we've been away!) Bye for now and will no doubt email again soon to tell you all about sky diving which I'm hoping to do in the next couple of days... watch this space!! Love, Anja xxx