Kia ora, sweet as chay!! (as they say in NZ!)

I have done so much in 10 days i have no idea where to start, and i'm still in the North Island!  Kiwi land is great, and so are the locals especially the Maori people.  Did you know that there are only about 4 million people in NZ and about 40+ million sheep?!?!

I started off in Auckland, which was a shocker after being in Fiji and to be honest i didn't really like it!  It took me a day to figure out the best way to travel round, and if i had my way (plus more and time and lots more money!!) i would have driven as this is the best way to see NZ...apparently hitchiking is good here, but no way on my own!!

I booked myself onto a Magic bus with a Kiwi Experience bus add on to do the East part of the North Island, as this is the only company that travels to that remote part of NZ....although i later found out much cheaper alternative ways!!

Luckily i had some cool people on my Magic bus and our first stop was a place called Waitomo caves where we took a slow boat ride through caves that had glow worms - they were like little stars in the sky!  The caves reminded me of Wokey Hole (Ips and Kim remember our primary school holiday when we were 11?!).   That evening we stayed at Rotorua (has natural thermal pools so the whole place stinks of really bad eggs due to the sulphur!) and went to a traditional Hangi (food cooked underground for about 5 hrs) and concert night at a local village - it was expensive but well worth it as i was educated, entertained and fed!  We also saw our first famous Haka performance!

Next morning the others carried on the bus and i stayed another night like a little loner, but i caught a local bus to do Zorbing which was great fun!  You get put in this massive sphere which is filled with water and then pushed down a hill on a zig zag track!!  I was all over the place and laughing like a mad woman!!!  Highly recommended.  Afters i treated myself to my first ever spa experience and stayed in natural thermal pools all afternoon!!!

The next morning i got back on the bus to a place called Taupo stopping off at to see Lady Knox Geyser, which, when 2 bars are soap are put in the crater, explodes!  From there we went to a place called Rocks and Ropes and all encouraged each other to do 'The Swing'.  Ok, this doesn't sound scary, but f*cking hell i thought i was going to die!!!  You have to climb up this pole to a platform where you are strapped round the waist  to then jump off and swing....all i remember is jumping and letting out a bloodcurdling scream and swearing...damn camera died tho (as usual) so i didn't get any pictures!!

I joined the Kiwi Experience the next morning to do the East part of the Island which is very remote and hardly travelled, so i was really looking forward to it...although with apprehension as the Kiwi bus has a bit of a reputation!!  There was about 10 of us on the bus with a high percentage being 18!!  Only one was really annoying, but one (Ben) was cool and cute and i had to remind myself that i was 27 and that it was very, very wrong to think that!!!

The East is bloody fantastic, and my only regret is that i didn't drive it myself so that i had more time!  Our first stop was at Te Keha at a homestay where we had to perform a welcome song to the family...this is the kinda sh*t i wanted to avoid!!  They did have a hot tub in their back garden tho (which led onto a beach!) so all wan't bad!  We had a great dinner too and i found out that i wasn't the oldest on the Kiwi bus - wahoo!  The host was a nice, but strange bug eyed fella, whose every other word was 'chay' or 'sweet as' or 'doll' !!  We sat singing random songs till 12am.

Next place was East Cape which is the first place in the world to see the sunrise of each new day.  We stayed on a farm which was great and i did a 2 hr trek and sunset in the mountains and on the beach.  One armed local Reg set me up with a horse, and the whole experience scared me to be honest as i don't think my horse, Apachi, like me and kept trying to chuck me off!!  It was still a great experience, but i was happy to get back to the farm and play table tennis craply with drunk locals.....

After getting up at 6am to be one of the first few people in the world to see the sun rise to a new day (it was bad weather tho!) we headed to Napier stopping off at a placed called Gisbourne (where Captain Cook landed) and Whangara (where Whale Rider was filmed) and had a night dancing till 1.30am....

Last day on the tour was cheese, honey, chocolate and wine tasting in Hawkes Bay which was all yummy!

We stopped off back in Taupo and me, Ben, Chris and Adam all decided to do the 8 hr day trek in Tongariro National Park which was the setting for Mordor and Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy....what a killer of a trek!!!  17 kms, active volanoes and 1900m of altitude - i had sausages for fingers at the end of it.  There was one point called the Devil's Staircase and i honestly thought i might die and go to hell!  I was on my hands and knees crawling on a narrow strip of mountain - steep slopes either sides with wind battering me from all angles...but the sense of achievement when i'd finished it was great and the views made it all worthwhile : )  Plus the Dominoes pizza helped after!!!!

So i arrived in Wellington today which is a lovely little place and makes me think of San Fran.  I will be getting the boat over to the South Island on Monday morning.  The South is suppose to be superb, but bloody cold at the moment and i am seriously blowing my budget...at this rate i will be home next month!!!

Hope i haven't bored you and you're still reading, as that was a marathon email!!!  Will do pictures as soon as i can!

Love ya.  Me xx