New Zealand!!

After our very enjoyable snorkell/dive trip to the Great Barrier reef in Oz we headed back to to Brisbane for a night before flying out to Auckland... we also spent a day at Australia zoo here.The Great Barrier reef was special as it is madeout to be... I have never seen so many variety of fish in one place... you are able to get right up close to the coral and fish and are given six different opportunities to get into the water at various locations... after a rocky night on the boat i was ready to touch dry land again though! Australia zoo was funny, we finally got our aus wildlife fix, with elephant feeding, wallaby and roo petting and even a koala petting photo!! We were very sad to leave Austrlia, but I amlooking forward to some extreme sporting in NZ!

Arriving in NZ, as expected, much colder! We stayed in Auckland with some more Patmore over-seas friends for 4 days... as in Melbourne and Canberra is was sooooo nice to stay in a house again! We were well fed and with tea on tap and the chilly weather, I certainly caught up with some caffeine drinking! We were taken for ao tour up 'One tree hill'.. this offered us an opportunity to see a fantatic view over Auckland and the surorunding area... which was beautiful... very nice to see some undulating countryside again! One tree hill was also where the album cover for 'U2, The Joshua tree' was shot... unfortunately due to mawri vandalism the tree has been removed .. which was a shame... but we could see where it once stood! The next day, after having a picnic at mission bay we headed into the city and went up the skytower... again some amazing views and cheesy photos here!

Leaving Auckland we jumped on our first 'Kiwi Experience' bus to Rotorua... we had to go via Mercury Bay for a night anf then on to Rotorua the next day. Plenty of scenic views of the countryside, but otherwise not a huge amount to do or see here!

We arrived in Rotorua, greeted by the smell of the sulphur steam... often reffered to as smelling of rotten eggs.. lovely! We saw some friends who we met on Fraser islands again which was great and headed to the bar in the evening. Today we have done White water rafting... although a little scary at first, we soon got into it and it was SO MUCH FUN!! The river we rafted included grade 5 rapids and a 7m waterfall... of which 2 out of 5 boats flip and capsize.. haha... luckily our boat made it to the bottom the right way up and with all of its passengers still intact! Definately an experience worth paying for!

Tomorrow we head to Taupo via Waitomo.. I originally planned to do my skydive here, however the weather will be too poor so I think i will do it over the frans Josef glacier in the South island instead... I also aim to do a glacier hike here.. hopefully the weather with be clearer and there will some amazing sights to see...