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After a few days exploring Santiago we flew to New Zealand for a VERY excitable reunion with Charl! We clearly made the most noise that anyone in the arrivals lounge had made in the 6 hours we were waiting there. After a much needed gossip we made our way to the hostel and were pleased to see that we'd be living in luxury for a couple of days with a roof terrace and hot tub!
Whilst in Auckland we decided for certain to change our flights after Australia. After talking to loads of other people we'd decided that we didn't really need to spend 8 and a half weeks in Oz as others had advised it was really expensive in comparison to everywhere else and 8 weeks was far too long. So we're now flying to Bali after 6 weeks in Oz and then onto Singapore a week later so we're adding Bali, Singapore and Malaysia onto the trip which we're really excited about!
One of the highlights of Auckland was Paddy's Day- all day drinking in an Irish bar on Auckland harbour proved that the Kiwi's definitely know how to drink!!
Yesterday was our first day on our 'Kiwi Experience' trip- we went up Mount Eden which gives a 360 degree view of Auckland and then travelled to the Coromandel Peninsula where we did a gruelling trek to a beach called Cathedral Cove (well worth it though). We spent the night in a place called Whitanga (Mercury Bay) which really did feel like the middle of nowhere, the hostel owners cooked us all a slap up meal and we went to bed quite early as had to get up this morning at 6.30am (!) to travel on.
Today we did a trek through the Karangahake Reserve (a lot easier than yesterday or maybe we're just getting fitter?!) and then went to Hobbiton- one of the places where The Lord of the Rings was filmed. We then travelled on to Rotorua where we're staying tonight and saw all the hot springs and natural geysers (the whole place stinks of sulphur though so has earned the reputation of 'Smelly-Rua' and you can certainly see why).
Tomorrow we travel on to the Waitomo Caves where we see the gloworms and I'm very excited for Saturday :-) all will be revealed in the next blog...
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