At the end of the first leg of our journey, we have finally got round to writing the first entry of our travel blog! So, after a gruelling 36 hour journey where Rosie only got on the plane with 3 minutes to departure, we arrived in Auckland City on a beautiful summer's monrning :) Ignoring our horrendous jet lag, we immediately began our sightseeing on the Harbour Cruise (with no sun tan lotion..big school boy error there)...the Harbour was beautiful blah blah blah...Straight after we went up to the Sky Tower (using a lift, as opposed to walking of course) we were able to view the whole of the city and watch people self-willingly jump off the building (for fun, not to kill themselves). However, the tiredness kicked in so we decided to head straight to bed at about 8pm... Rosie was so tired she fell asleep in the middle of a game of 20 questions, only to awaken 25 minutes later deliriously asking for the next question...

The next day we explored Auckland more, climbing up a volcano (a big hill) with lots of canons and scary tunnels...Following this strenuous walk, we went for our first swim in the sea....it's a tough life!

On the third day the fun really started when we collected our campervan, with graffiti on the side of a band called 'Fat Freddys Drop' (apparently they are a big deal as we came to realise through a few 'rock ons' being shouted at us on the motorway!). Our first stop was Hot Water Beach, where we camped on the beach, and felt the hot springs through the sand at low tide...it was pretty cool (or hot, should i say).

We then headed to Rotorua, a town that smelt of rotten eggs..Upon entering the town Rosie had mistaken the pungent eggy smell for Laina's stinky fart (how rude!). In the evening we went to the local backpackers bar, after parking the van on the main road to sleep for the night!! (bad idea!!) And the following day we went to Wai-o-Tapu thermal park, which was interesting for us geographers! We spent the afternoon chilling by what we thought was a beautiful spot to watch the sunset and eat our dinner of beans on bread..However, the local Maori yobs decided to rain on our parade and ran around looking for what we thought was a nice spot to dump the body which we believed they were hiding in the boot of their car. We hastily made a getaway in the opposite direction of any sort of civilisation with an empty tank of petrol..oops :) We did manage to fill our tank though, but the stink was still proving too much for us, so we headed to Taupo where we went jet boating up some awesome rapids!

We then returned to Rotorua the following night to watch a free concert by the lakeside, where we saw local 'ahem' talent in the form of the local school choir, The Drifters, and Elvis who apparently is actually still alive and kickin'!

Our next stop was the Waitomo caves, where we abseiling and rock climbed 100metres underground..pretty incredible, and a good laugh :) Waitomo itself was pretty dull, so we spent a night sleeping under the stars in the middle of nowhere with cows, sheep, and two irish boys ;)

Next stop was Ahipara...arriving after dark, we 'convieiently' forgot to pay the campsite fee, and after having a refreshing and much needed shower in the morning (courtesy of the campsite :) ) we made a speedy getaway up to Cape Reigna, which is the most northerly point of New Zealand, where it rained..in Cape Reigna..how appropriate!

We then sped down to Paihia, where Laina took in the Maori culture and Rosie dived on the Canterbury. (Our first day spent away from each other...we both pulled through..just about ;) ) By the evening, we were both stinking to high heaven so we spent about 2 hours asking all the backpacker resorts if we could use their showers, but to our dismay they all rejected the two stinking tramps away. But our last port of call was a rather nice looking motel, where the hotel manager offered us her family's private shower!!!! It was goooood, and we went away smelling like roses :)

So, that brings us to the present! We have just dropped off our campervan and are waiting for an 11 hour coach journey down to Wellington tonight, from there we will be catching a ferry across to the South Island, where the second leg of our travels begins :)

We were going to write the word for goodbye in the Maori language, but we've forgotten..so..err...bye!

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