Hello! Sorry for the late blog! Luckily i have kept a journal so I can remember everything because we sure have done a lot! Hope you are well!

We started off our new zealand adventure at the Rugby Sevens in Wellington... and boy was it an eyeopener! We met Alex (matt's female cousin) and her house mate as they live in New Zealand and are experienced Sevens peeps.

Basically the Sevens is held at a Stadium and has loads of countries competing in rugby (yes, rugby hmmm). But as we discovered when we got there... NOBODY watches it with the exception of the NZ games. And EVERYONE is in fancy dress... serious fancy dress they put us all to shame... check out the pics on the blog. We were there for two days and just joined in the drinking and the general fun. As we had front row seats we got to speak to lads of the players Ihave a great pic with the wales team! And the french were impressed with my language skills "Bonjour monsiers" hehe.

We then spent a day in wellington before we set off exploring the north island with Alex and Rachel in a car. This is what we got up to...

From Wellington to Napier where we spent two days visiting wineries, chocolate/cheese/honey factories and we had quite a memorable picnic on top of a VERy windy mountain in the boot of our car hehe.

Then onto Taupo where we participated in a Maori Experience (Maori's are the natives) We ate a hungi (a feast of meats etc which are cooked under the ground for hours so they taste quite earthy and smokey but yummy). We also looked around their village and saw how they used to live as well as having a rather scary invite into their village! They are practically naked (oyoy) with weird makeup and loads of tatoos and sticks. They perform something similar to the hakka and 'check you out' to see if you can enter! Amazing! Then after dinner they performed for us and picked Matt and a few other men to do the hakka HAHA matt was useless but very amusing!

We also visited a Prawn park/factory (weird!) and 'Craters of the moon' basically big holes with steam and stuff (very stinky).

Following day was 'Free Thursday' as we got loads for free. We went to Rotorua the north islands 'adrenaline capital'. We did zorbing! AMAZING! Basically a massive blow up ball with water in and you jump in and they push you down a steep hill! Hilarious and so much fun! We all had to hold our pants up though as we flashing moonies hehe. Matt and I had a moment of madness (not like us) and did a swoop... similar to a bungy but you are in tight sleepingbag/harness things and they wrench you up 150ft, matt then had to pull a cord and we plunged to our death (well not quite but a bloody felt like it!) Such an amzing feeling though! We also visted some mud pools and went up on a gondala to the top of a mountain and 'luged' down it. Luging is like little gokarts but the courses go down steep winding, bumpy, heart in yours mouth type courses eek! Wow!

Visited Coromandel and went to a hot water beach where you can dig holesi nthe sand to sit in boiling water! Following day went to a rodeo! It was a real 'hillbilly' village with slightly strange people with no teeth or shoes (ok very strange people). They had a sheep shearing contest, a 'WArwick Arms' Tug-o-war (made us chuckle) and of course a rodeo... mad people riding bulls and tiny children being plonked on a sheep or a calf to be, not surprisingly hurled off in a heap! Loving parents! ha! Then on to Auckland for our last night.

We flew to Christchurch to stay at ALex's (her house is really nice with a lovely garden). Herself and Rachel were excellent hosts, not forgetting Michael the dog hehe. After two days using up their kind hospitality we decided to hire a van a travel the south island..........