Ok well we spent 2 spells in Auckland, 1 was before xmas and the other after for new year!

!st spell was on arrival from Fiji which we were all glad to be leaving...sounds so bad eh!? fed up of all that sun, sea and sand!! haha!

Anyway 1st impressions were excellent a well balanced mix between America and England!! We stayed 4 nights in Auckland and really that was enough though as we were quite bored come the end!! We saw the sky tower and that was about it!! Other than that you needed lots of money to go clothes shopping so....that was not a luxury we had!! But all in all New Zealand had started well but we needed some activity!

We went up to the Bay of Islands for our xmas which was to be our 1st away from home! It was excellent though and to make it extra special we swam with the dolphins on xmas day! We also drank a fair bit of alcohol over these few days and prob kept a few innocent backpackers awake late into the night...oooops!! We also made a walk to the hanaru falls which was very beautiful and was the first piece of real scenery we visited...the 10 km round trip also helped to keep the fitness up! In this period we met a couple of girls who were are on the same path through new zealand as us called Amy and Laura. They also swam with the dolphins on Xmas day! We will prob see them again at some point on our trip!! We then went back to Auckland for a few days and that really was a bit boring as it felt like we were waiting for new yr but in the end New yr was excellent; We met a few peeps who were staying in our hostel and ended up going out in a group of about 10 peeps maybe more!! But they included Dan, good lad who enjoyed his alcohol and made us play chase the ace at half 3 in afternoon whilst shotting wine if you lost and i was in bed by half 5 so thanks for that!!haha!! Kate who was excellent she was about 27 and had been away from home a couple of yrs and was on her last stages!!...A nice guy called ross and a scot called.....ummm.....cant remember but he was a bit of a nutter....we all dressed up in our glad rags new yrs and he was in a scottish rugby shirt hmmm see what i mean?!?! We all went to a place called the loaded hog which was a huge pub club type thing!! And we all danced the night away after new yr had been seen in and auld lang syne had been sang!! ......Next day we had a bus at half 9 so that was Auckland!! Onto our next stop of Rotorua!!

So in brief Auckland was a nice city but not much there to do!! ........