Whoa dudes! Sweet as bro!! God, these phrases are so addictive!

We have just landed in the Bay of Islands, north NZ. Absolutely gorgeous scenery, and we couldnt hope for better weather. Initially the kiwi experience felt like starting a new school (NIC - I should know!!) but we soon made friends. We have a good little group going now and we had a fantastic night out last night, though Anna missed out on the wet t-shirt competition. She is kicking herself now! It was certainly an eye-opener.

We took the 'Excitor' boat out around the bay and through to the famous hole in the rock, clad in our 'SOSpenders' - which we childishly found amusing. Still cannot get over how clear the water is. We didnt expect it to be as clear as the water in Thailand.   The moral of this story was - always wear a sports bra! ha!

The following day it was yet another early start as we took a full day bus tour to the very tip of NZ (Cape Reinga) - home of the ninety mile beach and the meeting of the two oceans (pacific and tasman). It is Maori sacred land up there so there are strict rules about eating and drinking, which is fantastic as it was so clean and untouched. Our photo's probably wont do it justice. The colours of the ocean and surrounding grassland areas were unreal.

The bus driver was craazy! He drove all the way at break neck speeds, in a bus he called the mean machine. It supposedly cost them $400,000 or something like that, and is kind of custom made so that it can be driven along the beach, and it really was a 'beast'. He was very good though, and certainly knew his stuff. In fact, he wouldnt stop talking, - constantly cracking rude jokes and laughing like a maniac. The roads at the top of the country are bad anyway. You would be mad to drive on them yourself? You arent insured to drive on the beach either as it is so dangerous with the quick sand and wild horses, etc

He took us to the giant sand dunes first where we launched ourselves off on boards. The dunes were 85 metres high and it was hard work even getting up there! The sand got everywhere! The only scary part was when he was running through the safety aspects at the beginning and he was telling us that if you didnt do it properly then you can easily break bones. He'd recently broken his ribs from it.

Our next stop was a quick swim in the Tasman sea and a dig for shell fish, which Anna was thrilled about.

So many things to say, and so little time!! Will have to finish this later......xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx