Hello again!

Time is passing so quickly!! I'm now in Paihia in the Bay of Islands which is very hard work - NOT!! Paihia is north of Auckland and is one of the places were Kiwis come to have their holidays. Its quite a small place but really pretty plus its nice and sunny too which is a bonus!

Since my last blog I've been to Whitianga (pronounced Fitianga) where I relaxed in more hot pools, Waitomo where I went black water rafting through the caves and Auckland where I booked my self a hotel as a treat (and it was lovely!!). The hot water pools were a real laugh as one of the other girls had an underwater camera so we took loads of funny pictures. The only problem was that it was Valentines Day so there were lots of smooching couples in the pools whilst we were there shouting 'do a handstand' and 'what about a back flip'!!. I've put a link to come pictures below so you can see what I mean.

The Black Water rafting was really fun. It was more like tubing on an inflatable ring through the pitch black and our only illumination at times was the glow worms on the cave ceilings which were very pretty.

My hotel stay in Auckland was well worth it. I had a room all to myself and it was so nice after several weeks of sharing! It was only a flying visit to the city though as I'm going back on Saturday for a couple of nights to have a look round and do a bit of shopping before my flight to Fiji on Monday.

As I mentioned earlier, Pahia is a holiday town and has a couple of lovely beaches. Its also very near to the top of the Nroth Island so today I did a day trip to Cape Reinga which is the very top of New Zealand. It was a long day - we got picked up at 7am - but it was really good fun. We stopped in quite a few different places along the way and rode the coach along the 90 mile beach before going sandboarding down some very high and very steep dunes. Needlless to say we were all covered in sand by the end of it so we had a lovely swim in the Pacific Ocean before going to Cape Reinga which the Maori's believe is the most sacred place in New Zealand and where the spirits of the dead go to start their journey to the other world. The day was finished off with good old fish and chips!!

I'm in Pahia for 3 more nights so having a chill out day tomorrow and then going diving on Friday.

Hope all is good with everyone. Keep in touch with all your news!!

Links to pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102584&id=639730629&l=88bd9

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102580&id=639730629&l=25441