Hello everyone on the other side of the world.

 Taken some time to sit and write about New Zealand so far. I know that we havn't added anything on Fiji but i'm hoping you all got my email to fill you in. If you didn't then let us know and I shall forward it to you. Also Colin has to finish the bit on San Fran too.

 Anyway New Zealand has been great so far. It's like the perfect country. Has great seafood, lots of water everywhere, they are so passionate about their rugby and the views are so amazing. They have mountains, lakes, nice beaches, green everywhere. I can imagine a lot of people at home liking it here!

So we landed in Auckland on the 26th April and Matt (Mum's cousin) came to pick us up. We were in Auckland for a few days before we left to join the Kiwi Experience bus. Aucklands a nice place with a bay so lots of nice boats are situated here. And the food is so good! There's not a huge amount to do in Auckland but we went to the war museum and Colin through himself off the tallest building in the southern hemisphere (allegedly) which was funny to watch.

Once we left Auckland we headed to the very top of the north island to a place called Cape Reiga where the Tasman sea meets the Pacific ocean. The scenery there was something not to miss, both seas clashed together as they meet and the beaches are golden. I didn't believe that this north section was sub tropical but its actually true, I was expecting it to be colder than 22'C.

After this we headed back down through Auckland for 2 more nights and then began heading further south. We travelled and stopped over in Mercury bay where the hostel we stayed in was really nice and new. We then travelled to a place called Rotorua where all the holiday makers go from NZ and surrounding countries. I'm yet to find out why though, as the place is sitting on the thinnest bit of the earths crust in the world and there are sulphur pits everywhere. So the place basically stinks of rotten eggs all the time. We took part in a Maori evening here where they performed the Huka (which was so amazing to see in the flesh), there was a chief elected on the bus to represent us. The cheif had to face the Maori of the village and show that we came in peace. We wern't allowed to smile or laugh at the performance the maori man put on as it's an insult to their culture. His eyes bulged out of his sockets and his tongue was constantly hanging out ang wagging. So I just couldn't help it, it was something I had never seen before! After the tour of this village all 200 of us (our bus load of 30 plus loads of other holiday makers) sat down to a huge meal they had cooked for us in the ground oven.

 In Rotorua we also did some of the activities. We zorbed, which is where you jump into a huge 11 ft diametre ball, they throw warm water in with you, then roll you down a huge hill! It was so fun! We also luged, which is when you are taken up a mountain so it seems, in a cablecar, then go-cart down the concrete tracks really quickly. Colin nearly had his off the track a few times but I managed to regain control. We had a race with some of the others on our bus which was so funny!

 From Rotorua we then headed to Waitomo a bit further south. This is such a tiny place but has the best caves in NZ, if not the world apparently. Me and Colin forked out a bit of cash to try a spot of Black Water Rafting. Now it sounds like white water rafting but actually it's completly different. We left for a 5 hour adventure at 3pm and dressed up in wet suits, wellies and hard hats with lights on. We were then transported to the cave entrance with 2 guides. The first part was to abseil down into the cave for 40metres. I was so scared when i was doing this, i had never done it before but once you got the hang of it, it was ok! Although, I was glad to get to the bottom of the seil after lowering myself into a pitch black cave, part of it i had to carefully squeeze myself through a small hole. Very scary stuff. The next part was to climb through a few cracks in the cave to then be clipped to a wire and sent sailing down a zipwire into the pitch black again. This bit was so funny, me and the other girl who did it screamed like anything at this part! The other 6 boys just pretended it wasn't half scary! The quides served us tea, coffee and flapjack at this point as it started to get chilly. They then handed us a big rubber ring each and told us to jump in the cave river flowing below. Absolutley freezing, i don't think i've ever been so cold, but it was such a laugh watching everyone get freezing water in their wetsuit. We cruised down the river to look at some of the ancient limestone that has been forming for thousands upon thousands of years. We also saw huge rocks in the water, which we quickly shown where they had come from in the ceiling of the cave. A bit worrying. Anyway the best part was when we all turned our lights off, made a huge train with our feet and rubber rings, and sailed back down the river looking at the glow works above us. It was so pretty, just like stars. So many of them aswell and we were shown the sticky silk lines they make, some being their cocoon beds. The next part of the cave was the walking on the jagged rocks and sliding down waterfalls into deep cold water. This was fun as we then found ourselves squeezing through small sections of cave on our stomachs with water gushing in our faces and eyes. We got pulled aside once more and handed hot orange juice and chocolate to boost our energy as we were so unbelievably cold. Once back on track we had the most energetic bit to come with more small cave holes. The next bit was to start climbing back out of the cave. We we introduced to a waterfall in the middle of the cave which we had to climb up and walk through tight walls to then have to climb another waterfall to get out. Once out it was about 8pm at night so I got a bit confused whether we were still in the cave or out in the open as the stars looked like glow worms. My legs were aching so much as my wellies were full of water! But it was such a good experience i'm really glad i did it. I was very much ready to sleep as soon as we got back to the hostel.

We left Waitomo today and now we are in Taupo which is beautiful. The lake here is the size of Singapore Island. It's huge. Our hostel looks out over the lake and in the background there are snowy mountains and hills. It's almost the ski season here, i'm looking out for cheap deals all the time. A lot of the mountain scenes from lord of the rings was shot near here so when we leave in 2 days time we are going to see some of the movie set which shall be great!

I hope everyone is well at home. Always like to hear from you lot. I shall get my photos on here tomorrow at some point as it's getting late. It's only colins on here at the moment and I have about 500 so I need to decided. I'm sending a disk home soon with all my photos on it so far incase something happens to them once i delete them off my camera.

Anyway I shall email again soon with everything i have done since the last time i sent one so basically all this stuff shall be repeated. A bit of copy and paste may occur.

Lots of love xxx