WE'RE HERE!!!!! After 37 hours of travelling, a lot of running and three nearly missed flights we have finally made it to Tauranga.

The accommodation here is nice. We have our own room, with a shared bathroom, kitchen and lounge. There are 10 students here at the moment. 5 from the UK, 1 from Australia and the rest are on a placement here from Auckland university. Everyone is really friendly - in fact everyone in New Zealand is genuinely friendly and are all obviously very proud of their country - as they should be.

Yesterday went by in jet-lagged haze and not much was accomplished aside from an early night and a slice of apricot pie. Today however we have been marginally more productive and went into town and to the waterfront for a look round. Katy tried the famous flat-white coffee (which now seems to be my new nickname) and we had the most amazing snapper and chips in the harbour fishmarket for lunch. This place is essentially a shack on the waterfront and all the fish had been freshly caught that day. You selected your fish from the counter and then it was battered and cooked in front of you. YUM!

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be fine (it's rained all day today) so we plan on going to Mt Maunganui and to the beach. I'll let you know how it was in a couple of days.