I know I started this blog for my time with Disney Cruise Line but I thought that it is a perfect place to update you on my current adventure in New Zealand. I flew out here to meet my friend Jess from school who has been travelling for about 7 months and to travel this beautiful country.

So I started my journey on a Sunday night and she started hers the next Tuesday and we both arrived on the same day...she was in Australia! The day after we arrived we had booked onto the Kiwi Experience bus which is a hop on hop off tour bus that covers both the north and south islands. We left in the morning to go to hot water beach which is slightly north and east of Auckland. We made a few stops on the way to buy supplies and to stretch our legs but the journey wasn't very long at all. We arrived at a lovely little holiday park and settled into our dorm rooms of 7 people and quickly made friends with the others in our room and then got on time cooking our dinner...noodles and sweetcorn!! It was actually quite a challenge as there was no cutlery or bowls so we stirred the noodles with a potato peeler and stabbed the sweetcorn tin open with a bread knife, but the end product tasted delicious! Then we got into our swim wear and headed to the beach. 2 hours either side of low tide if you dig a hole on the beach you will find hot water, REALLY hot water...hot enough to burn my elbow! It was such an uncomfortable feeling because whatever part of your body was in the water was boiling but the rest was absolutely freezing, I've never felt anything like it! So when we'd all stuck it out for about an hour we set our eyes on a pool that had some seemingly happy people in and willed them to leave so we could nab their pool...and they did, and their pool was amazing! So Jess and I headed back about 10pm and had a got into a lovely warm shower and bed. The warm bed didn't last long, because for some reason our room was freezing and we all woke up in the night shivering...thank goodness we didn't camp in tents like some of the people on our bus!

We had an early morning the next day heading off to Waitomo. When we arrived in Waitomo we walked into the hostel and literally screamed at the sight of our dorm room...it was for two people! Luxury! So we chilled out for a couple of hours and then got ready for our next adventure. We were picked up by a guy called Scuba and went to the caves where we would swim, walk, tube, jump down waterfalls, learn about and see thousands of glow worms in a pitch black cave...it was absolutely the best time ever and the two guides were so lovely and had mine and Jess' sense of humor...we were obviously their favorites and we didn't stop laughing the whole time. We finished this adventure with soup and a bagel and we each put a few dollars in to buy the disc of photos. Back at the hostel we planned to cook dinner and go down to the bar but we fell asleep pretty much as soon as we got back to our room!

We were very well rested the next day and the journey was short to Rotorua so we made the most of the 4.5 hours we had inbetween arriving and our evening outing. We had a bit of a walk around the town which stinks of sulphur, and if you don't know what that smells of try thinking of muddy eggs and you're pretty close. There are places in the town where sulphur is smoking from the ground which is pretty strange! After a little dip in the hostel's pool we got wrapped up warm to go to the local cultural experience where we learnt about Mauris and joined in some of their customs, including eating a huge feast that had been cooked under ground! It was delicious, and the evening was topped off with a good old sing song where Jess and I were obviously the first on and last off the dance floor! We got back to the hostel with half an hour to get changed and down to the bar to get in for free. Once again Jess and I were some of the first time dance but this time we were some if the first to leave opting for a shower and bed rather than a free bar and a smoke machine filled room. It was a really good night with everyone from the bus there dancing and chatting and generally having fun!

The next day we started on our way to Taupo, stopping on the way to either go on a walk in the red forest or to go to a geothermal park. I went on the walk and Jess went to the geothermal park. We really missed each other and vowed to never leave each other again...joking! We both had really good fun doing our different activities, and would be doing different things later in the day too as Jess was going to skydive but I wasn't! So we checked into the hostel I grabbed some lunch and told Jess I loved her and didn't want her to die as she drove off in her skydive limo! I then went for another walk around the town mainly looking for free internet, picking up an ice cream on the way and seeing some amazing views of the lake and snow capped mountain. I then went back to the hostel and chilled out for a bit waiting to see if Jess had survived her skydive...don't worry, she did! We had another early night, both falling asleep in our clothes without dinner!! (Travelling is a holiday but NOT a relaxing one!) The next morning was a bit of a lie in (9am) because we had a picnic to be bought and some hot springs to find, and that we did. We walked for roughly 45 mins to find the hot springs and cor blimey were they hot! The higher up the hill you went the hotter the water was, I only managed 3 of the pools! We then had a leisurely walk back to the hostel and got ready for the quiz night in the hostel bar...however the hostel bar wasn't open, so we found an Irish pub for our dinner and I told the bar man about our misfortune with the hostel bar quiz so he fished us a quiz out of his filing cabinet and offered us a free drink each for the winning team and the quiz master. So of course jess was the quizzes master and I was on the winning team!