Unlike Lord of the Rings, New Zealand is real - this is not Middle Earth, so forget the fictional comparisons and we confronted the country's magnificent geography as well as its ever envolving Maori culture, on its own authentic terms and of course not to forget the adrenalin pumping activities. After a memorable flight from Santiago to Auckland with many digital film clips that we cracked up over impersonations of our friends back home, we landed in Auckland in no time. It was a Saturday night and the airport was dead till security confiscated Semhar's juggle ball as the ball contained seeds inside that was bought at Santiago airport. Despite being at ease in a English-speaking environment we found it hard to adapt the expensive prices compared to South America. Our first task was to find a hostel with a very good chance of the hostels being fully booked. Surprised to find a rich ethnic diversity in the heart of Auckland, in fact Auckland is the largest Polynesian city in the world. These days you will find New Zealand is a highly developed country with a population of just over 4 million people. True, they do have quite a few sheep over here - 44 million to be exact. That's eleven sheep to every person (what I want to know is who the heck goes round counting them?) We walked down Queen's street, saw people raring with energy to go out and there was us desperately in need for a bed and sleep after being awake for so many hours (we skipped a day as we flew over the international date line). We finally tracked down Queenstreet Backpackers. Over the next few days, we shopped in Auckland and I went up in the sky tower to get a 360 paranomic view of Auckland. The sight of Auckland looked different from above than on the ground, you could see the bridge, harbour and the concentrated settlement of many high-rise buildings. Our bodies were still clocked to South America's time that we all fell asleep one late afternoon, we skipped dinner without realising and missed the opportunity to check out the Auckland nightlife, Hawaiian night at the Globe. Andre and Semhar woke up early the following morning with finding something to do that they came with the idea of the gym at 6am (yes, that early!!) Excited to start our Kiwi Experience even if it meant being early birds for the next couple of weeks. For those of you who are not clear, Kiwi Experience provides a flexible transport network. Not tours, but trips linking New Zealand's scenic attractions and adventure activities. They deliver genuine cultural experiences where we got to meet the locals and learn first hand about New Zealand culture. Not only that, they make our lives simpler by arranging our accommodation and activities. Most of all, a great way to meet fellow travellers and our driver, Lil John. Before leaving Auckland we embarked on a journey to the top of Mt Eden then we started to get a real insight of New Zealand's greenery (and believe me, I have never seen so much greenery in a short span of time). We headed to Hot Water Beach to dig a hole on the beach near the thermal outlet to soak in hot water. We weren't so successful as the tide wasn't right but we did feel the warm salty water. Along the Bay of Plenty, we took a great hour and a half return walk down to scenic sandstone formations and rock pools at the beach as well as the giantic cathedral cove. Andre took advantage of climbing a unique rock stack in the clear sea. Our first overnight stop was Whitianga with a night of fish 'n' chips and a game of pool in a local bar. We passed through Matamata - home of Hobbiton to Rotorua. This is an unusual town as steam came from under the streets and through storm water drains and there's boiling mud pools. The sulphur dioxide gas created by geothermal activity caused the town to have a very distinctive smell, which is why Rotorua is well-known as 'an evil-smelling place'. We planned to go zorbing but we were told that we didn't have enough time in between for our evening entertainment so Andre went indoor climbing due to wet weather whilst Semhar and I bathed in the natural thermal pool in our Hot Rocks hostel which stank of rotten egg. The thermal pool was unbelievably hot that we didn't stay in there for long as we started to feel dizzy. Rotorua is New Zealand's cultural heartland with a large indigenous population of Maoris. We wrapped ourselves warm for the evening outside to experience the unique Maori culture with Tamaki tours. As we entered the village, we were greeted traditionally, we listened to waiata songs (chanting), poi dancing, weaponary and the Haka. We dined on a buffet feast of traditionally prepared Hangi (a meal steamed in the ground on hot rocks) good kai (food) which follows traditional methods, customs and protocol. Our 'adventure' activities started in Waitomo where local caves hid under the green Waitomo countryside. As we arrived Kiwi Paka hostel or should I say hotel? As we had our own room with 3 single comfortable beds *sighs blissfully*. We had to hurry to be picked up by Bill for our Big Red Quad-biking trip. The action started from the moment we turned the throttle and roared out into the large acres of farmland that Bill had to tell us to slow down, especially on narrow hilly tracks. We drove kilometers of fun through bush, mud and great farmland views with spectacular scenery. We were lucky to witness a lamb being born, Bill stopped to show us the wee lamb trying to get up to walk its first steps. Quad-biking was definitely off the beaten track. Seeing that we had our own room, we took advantage of a pillow fight that was on going the beds swang from one side of the room to the other and we wouldn't be surprised if we disturbed others with the noise that we had made. Before we set off to Taupo, we went Black Water rafting in Waitomo caves. The labyrinth involved getting into a wetsuit, some lovely white gumboots, a tyre tube and best of all a miners helmet with a headlight. We did a bit of caving and some floating in freezing water. We had to work as a team by holding on to each other using our legs and a rope. Towards the end, we saw thousands of glow worms when we turned off our headlight and floated along. A true underground adventure finished off by floating on a river back to the minibus. Still keen for some more short walks we checked out the famous Huka (foam) falls which was situated on the Waikato River. Unexpectedly, we saw and heard the powerful blasted, bright blue river rushing by under us as we stood above the river on a bridge. You saw a clear picture of a plunge pool creating a mini-waterfall. Just before we arrived Urban Retreat hostel, our Kiwi Experience group headed to a warehouse to buy a silly hat for our theme that night between two Kiwi Experience buses, 'hats' vs 'wigs'! That explains the 'Christmas has come early' photo. To finish our day off, we hit Mulligan's Public House in our daft hats with a live band playing. Tequila time - we bought Lil John a tequila and we were shockingly astonished to find that he was barking mad enough to sniff the salt, drink the tequila and squeezed the lemon in his eyes and he claimed that it was the way to do it in New Zealand. Needless to say he used the same tequila method every time throughout our Kiwi trip and that's why he wears glasses(!) *rolls eyes* Holy Cow was next for a night of table dancing. A free day was allocated to Taupo and we hoped to do skydiving but the poor weather cancelled the activity so we spent the day checking out Lake Taupo which is big enough to fit the Island of Singapore in! Andre was hungover so it was a good job skydiving was postponed to the next morning. Instead we opted for the relaxing thermal springs outside and an Indian curry night out with the group. Skydiving the following morning was well worth the early rise. We equipped ourselves in red suits and saw our names appear on screen of who we were paired up with in order. We went in the plane with two benches along the side clipped on to our skydiving pros. With views of Mt.Doom from Lord of the Rings, Tongariro National Park and Lake Taupo, time flew by till we reached 12,000ft and all we could see was white fluffy clouds. Strangely enough, ejecting myself from a plane at high altitude and plummeting earthwards with only a few meters of cloth strapped to my back was unbelievably amazing. Tight goggles gave a clear view of the horizon, the air pressure pulled the skin on our faces back making it extremely hard to talk to the cameraman up in the clouds. The 12,000ft freefall was over in seconds and the experience was certainly immense. Later on that day we took a walk through Tongariro National Park which a lot of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy filming took place in the National Park as Mordor. Not long after we were into the aesthetic surroundings of River Valley Lodge. This location was beautifully isolated with the Rangitikei River running right past the front door. The roast dinner reminded us of home for sure. Unsure whether the White Water rafting would go ahead due to the river being too high, we had to wait till the next morning and luckily it was green light for the rafting adventure. Rangitikei River is only one of only two Grade 5 rivers that are commercially rafted in New Zealand. After hearing Bree's tales of struggling on a Grade 3/4 river, we ensured that our guides were professional and they certainly were. They gave us a demo and instructions at the start in our bright orange boat with 7 carriers including the guide. It started off gently, we had to jump out of the boat to practise swimming to the boat. Seeing that I am not a strong swimmer, my entire body flipped and I panicked trying to get hold of my breath till I held the end of the kayak, my group quickly pulled me back into the boat. For the rest of the trip, I held onto the raft boat for dear life. As we admired the pretty scenery we had to buckle ourselves to face amazing rapids, we had to work as a team on the exhilarating ride down some magnificently wild watercourses. At one point Niall and our photographer in a kayak fell out, they swam hard to the side and they looked absolutely out of breath, that was when I realised we were rafting dangerously down a gorgeful of rapids. We had to get out of the raft boat in the middle of the course as the guides told us it was far too hazardous to raft one of the rapids which had a deep plunge pool, we carried the raft boat along the side of the river to continue our rafting trip. It was a nervy experience that wild rapids and I don't go together. Windy Wellington as well as the capital of New Zealand was our last destination in the North Island. Situated at Base Backpackers in a room with the best view of Wellington. Andre headed off to the South Island a day earlier for his climbing expedition at Paynes Ford. Semhar and I strolled through the streets of Wellington and checked out the Te Papa museum which is home to the largest cultural attraction in New Zealand that visitors spent an average of 4 hours in there but it reminded us too much of the National Science museum in London that we preferred to walk along the harbour. We finished off our last night doing a pub crawl with the lads before moving onto 'colder' South Island with a new Kiwi Experience batch for more overwhelming unreal experiences. Aman x