Day 8 was a good if uneventful day. I was hoping it would be a day to relax the purse strings somewhat but I ended up buying a North Face Fleece and a new beenie hat. Nicola and I indepently shopped for hats, it turns out she tried on my hat but chose against it and then she spent the rest of the day staring admiringly at my head. I think her boyfriend was jealous, mainly beacuse he is only 3ft 8 and can't see up as far as my head. We went swimming in the...

Day 7 was an excellent day full of excellent adventures without Bill + Ted anywhere to be seen. We went wild today and went caving in the Waitomo Caves on an expedition called 'The Black Abyss'. This involved an absail 40m down into the caves, then a bit of a zip line down even further followed by a leap into freezing water onto a tube, that was the best bit. It involved 3 hours underground and ended with a climb up the waterfalls of doom. The trip was ru...

Day 5 saw 2 new boys arrive into our dorm. Nicola christened them 'smelly boys' from the off. Im not sure if this was 'good smell' or 'bad smell' because when I met them they were getting ready to hit the town (i say town, I mean one street, one bar) and it was aftershave city so this probably isn't 'bad smell'. However, one of them had a flatulence problem in their sleep which definitely constitutes 'bad smell'. Either way Nicola's assumption was right, they...

Day 3 (everytime I write something like "Day 3", im saying it in the voice of the guy who does the big brother voice overs, just incase anybody wondered). So, Day 3 (there i go again) was a quiet day on the Nicola and Chris World Tour. It involved a trip to a town called Russel and with a name like that its bound to be rather drab and lacking in personality. On returning from Russel we adjorned to the hostel common room for some Earl Grey and shortbreads. ...

Said goodbye to the sex maniac's hostel with a tinge of sadness. Will I ever meet an official sex maniac again with documentation to prove that status? The answer to this question will hopefully be 'yes' but under the conditions that the maniac in question isn't MALE or 70. Windypops, excuse me. Lots of exciting things have happenend today. We have been travelling upto the Bay of Islands and stopped off on the way up in a town called Dargeville to pur...