Hi hi!

Sorry I haven't written for so long, I am still alive but the website hasn't been letting me log on for ages so i thought I'd give it a bit of "chill out" time... Auckland is still good, though I don't know how much more there is to do around here!!

On Tuesday I had to go to the Inland Revenue office in Takapuna to sort out my tax code before I start to work, because it's my 1st time working in NZ I don't have to pay tax so woo! Takapuna is about 20 mins from "downtown" and it would have been a nice day if it wasn't raining so hard! After I'd sorted everything out I walked down to Devonport to catch the ferry across the harbour to Downtown, it was a good day trip as Devonport is very old and what most people call "proper New Zealand" so was very pretty with lots of little old shops! The 2 scottish girls flew out to Sydney on Tuesday morning and replacing them was 3 danish girls who are very funny but will only be here for the week sadly... The poor guy in our room is a bit fed up now because there's been 7 girls and him for about 4 days haha!!

The weather was gorgeous on Wednesday so I took a trip on the ferry over to Waiheke Island, there are a couple of nice islands about 30 - 40 minutes from the harbour that lots of Kiwi's go on holiday to so I though it would be worth a trip! It was absolutely gorgeous, lots of golden beaches with palm trees and the sun was a nice bonus! I didn't have a clue where I was going and even though I had a map nothing seemed to add up (my map reading skills have greatly improved since coming away so i'd like to think it wasn't too much my fault I got lost!!) so I must have walked about 20k round in circles haha! It was very pretty though, made up of lots of little villages that were nice to wander around and then i spent the afternoon on the beach with my book (I've read 4 since I've been out here, can you believe it mum?!!!)

Thursday was a bit of a lazy day, we didn't get up until about 1 and then did a bit of shopping and just bummed around as the weather was awful and we didn't really feel like going out!! In the evening we went to the bar next door called "Globe" it was OK, but we came home for an early night because it was pretty dead!

On Friday I had the free Auckland Day Trip with Kiwi Experience which was pretty good actually... We did the Bridge climb which would have normally been $35 so it was worth it just for that really! 3 people bungied off the bridge but I thought I'd save it until I'm in Rotorua or Queenstown so I can do one of the big ones (maybe not such a good idea thinking back on it?!!) We then went over to Mount Cook and saw all the bunkers there from the World Wars, though they were never used once! And then down to Devonport for Fish and Chips in the sun, yum yum. In the evening we all went out with 2 guys from manchester we met the other night and a guy called Ari from LA... It was a good night but we decided not to go to minus 5 (the bar made of ice) as it's really expensive and we thought we'd save it for another day!

So that brings us to today, I was going to answer all the questions you text me mum but I left my phone upstairs and can't remember most of them! No, I'm not going to Stewart Island because the lowest I go with Kiwi Experience is Queenstown so i'd have to get to the bottom of South Island and then across which at this time of year probably wouldn't be too nice anyway... Yes, I've seen lots of Kiwi's because that's what you call "New Zealanders" lol Kiwi birds, no, they're quite rare though I did see a stuffed one in the museum if that counts... And Kiwi fruits, yes, and i now eat the skins as there isn't often a knife to hand haha - it's the backpacker way!!

Glad to hear everyone is OK, when do you leave mum? Must be soon now... Send some love to Percy, and don't feed him too much broccoli! Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx