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After our tour of the South Island the next stop was a 3 week stay in Kaikoura where we cleaned in the Lazy Shag hostel for a couple of hours each morning. In return we received free accomodation at "the wee house" and stick bun Sunday. Trust us to pick the only hostel in the world with an en-suite for for every room - cue lots of bathroom cleaning!
We spent the rest of our time chilling in the garden, losing or cheating at the local pub quiz, celebrating St Patrick's Day with our fellow hostel workers and running along the peninsula. Unfortunately Kaikoura is not as flat as Greymouth an we pretty much died on any slight incline - not good signs for the hilly Loch Ness Marathon we seem to have somehow entered. We also went swimming with the seals and climbed the rather too steep Mt Fyffe (1602m) for some wonderful views of the peninsula and alot more of the top of clouds! Lindsay's Auntie Marion and Uncle Jim visited on their holiday from Brisbane and we had a lovely day catching up with them and visiting the local winery. We also caught up with Kelly and Dee who were passing through on their travels over some wine and cheese in the garden. After having arranged to or bumped into the girls in China, Vietnam, Loas, Thailand and now New Zealand the next meeting has been arranged for the exoctic Scotland/Ireland.
After 3 weeks in Kaikoura and now experts in sheet folding and sticky bun eating but having not quite mastered the art of top bunk bed making we headed north. The final leg of the Startlet tour started with the ferry to Wellington where we stayed the night before heading to Martinborough for some more winery action and then to Hawkes Bay. Next stop was Mount Maunguanui to catch up with Ann over some pizza and some qulaity 1980's Scottish DVDs her mum had sent. Think lots of castles, very poor videoing and tracksuit wearing teenagers at Glasgow Barras!
We then visited the very pretty Ragalan with its stunning beach and then headed on to Waitomo. Here we did a black water rafting trip which involved abseiling down into a cave and then floating through underwater caves in a large tube. On route we seen loads of very pretty glow worms which are apparently really glow maggots but have been renamed for attracting tourists! We then headed straight onto Taupo where we caught up with Lindsay's friend Claire over a bevarage or two. Here we also did the one day Tongario Crossing which is a spectacular walk over volcanic landscape with views of Mt Doom from the Lord of the Rings films.
Next stop was the very pretty Coromandel region which has beachs to rival any we have seen so far. One of Coromandels main attractions is Hot Water Beach. Apparently very simple hire a spade, dig a hole in the sand and it fills with hot water before the tide comes in. Unfortuantely we failed to realise you can't just dig a hole anywhere and after creating our spa pool realised we had dug it in completely the wrong place and it was therefore a very cold spa pool. Luckily out of nowhere a friend from university we hadn't seen since our graduation appeared and we caught up in her spa pool dug in the correct place.
After selling the wee Starlet (sad times) we headed to Auckland for a few days before our flight to Fiji. Here we did the coast to coast walk, attended a local rugby league game and took a trip north to the very tip of the North Island - Cape Renga and to the very pretty Bay of Islands. We celebrated our last day in New Zealand with a trip to the Asian food market and a glass of New Zealand wine. Next stop Fiji............................
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