Hello Everybody, How are you all? All good we hope! We are good, have finished our very brief, cold but amazing trip of the North Island of New Zealand and are now in the North of the South Island! We started off in Auckland which was really good...even though we had only heard bad stuff about it! Just shows that you really do have to make your own mind up about these things! We stayed in an awful smelly YHA the first night then moved to Base which was much nicer!!!! Had a good time in Auckland, went to the Domain, up the sky tower, looked around the city went to the museum you know...the usual. From Auckland we drove to Hot Water Beach where you can dig your own hole in the sand and hot water fills it like a bath but guess what...even though we left the hostel at 7am we didn't make it in time!!! The scenery on the way there made it worht it though! After that we drove to Rtorua to spend the night. It is a really nice but very small town. It smells really bad as they have alot of thermal stuff there and geysers so it smeel of rotten eggs alot which is nice!!! Had a good time there and the next day drove to Lake Taupo... We stayed in a really nice hostel there with a log fire and a balcony with a view of the lake. It was bitterly cold ther though! That was really nice and the views of the lake and mountains were stunning. The nountains all had snow on the top too! After Lake Taupo we drove on to Napier which was a small little town again. Stayed in a good hotel with a kitten! He was so sweet! Went out on that night with some people from the hostel which was good. After that we spent two days in Wellington which is a really nice city, went to the museum of New Zealand (Te Papa) which was really good, it's all interactive which is fun! Went out again to a few bars which was good, the city was really nice. Then we got the ferry to Picton (top of the south island) which was a good crossing because you get to see the Sounds as you come in! We stayed in a lovely hostel in Picton, now off to Kaikora (spelling??!!) Do pics soon love Chan & Dan xxx