Hi Guys, just a quick update to let everyone know that we have finally made it over the Tasman sea to New Zealand!! We left Sydney on Thursday in a fairly big hurry having finally sold the car - unfortunately so big a hurry we didnt buy return tickets back, which are required before you can be checked into new zealand, apparently!! Cue a sprint around Sydney airport at 7am trying to buy tickets, i kid you not!! However, after that and some minor searches in customs (ryan just must have a dodgy face!!) and a screaming child behind us on the plane, we landed in Auckland extremely excited, already doing Lord of the Rings impressions quietly to ourselves!!

 Auckland is a cool city, and thankfully the weather is still pretty hot! We explored for a bit before landing in an irish bar on our first night, and collapsing pathetically early into our hostel bunks (i'd like to blame jetlag, but i dont think a 3hr flight qualifies us for it!!). The next day we set off across the harbour to climb the volcano on Rangitoto island. This was an amazing hike, passed lava flows (yes, they were cold) and eventually up to an amazing view at the top. The area is just sooo green, especially after australia with all the droughts! After a fitful lunch of sarnies and crisps ( Mum, you would be proud!), we set off on the far quicker descent, and celebrated our hiking success with some wine on the rooftop of the hostel (not a bad view, quite similar to the one in the photo for the blog!).

We spent the weekend up in the bay of islands, about 3hrs coach trip north of auckland. We booked with Kiwi Experience, and it turned out to be a lot of fun, and we met some great people in the hostel. We stayed in Pipi Patch in Pahia, and spent the first afternoon getting to know our fellow roommates, the hostel cat and the surrounding area - just think pretty quiet, lake side towns with stunning island views! That night was spent in the bar with our roommates, discussing all things from Lord of the Rings (yes, its a recurring theme out here), to everyones plans for the next day. We had booked ourselves on a highspeed boat ride round the islands, then being dropped off at Otehi bay for a day on a beautiful island before driving back to uckland that night.

The scenery that we saw on our boat trip was unbelievable. We could see distant mountains, and all around were areas that it doesnt look like anyone has touched for thousands of years. In a way, its a bit like devon, but how it used to be i guess!! The boat ride was great, speeding us out to a big hole in an island rock where we looked for fish and watched divers. Unfortunately we didnt see any whales or dolphins, although theyre pretty common here apparently. We then got dropped off on a paradise island for a few hours, where we hiked some impressive hills (think the rolling hills of hobbiton, and you'll be close to it!), and picniked on a secluded cove all to ourselves!! We then relaxed on a catamaran all the way back to Pahia, and watched Whale Rider on the coach back home - its a hard life!!