Hey dudes

So I'm in New Zealand and the weather so far has been bloody fantastic!! Infact 'sweet as bro'!! So they all say out here!!

I arrived last Thursday about midnight after two flights!! I walked into my dorm and some bird began talking to me in her sleep! A very random experience! The next day I stumbled into the loos in a very sleepy state and who should I find in there doing her hair!! Sophie!! Yipeeee!!I knew she was in the same hostel as me and we had planned to hook up but just by chance we had our reunion in the lavs!!Sophie and I met in Sydney about 2 months ago and travelled together for a week to Byron bay, so it was great to see her again and it looks as though we're going to be on the same route for most of NZ which is fab news.

We had a yummy lunch at an Asian food court, sweet and sour pork and rice for less than two quid!! Sweet as bro!!! ;-) We then did some hard core shopping for winter clothes! Infact I had to put on my newly purchased jumper as it got a bit chilly!!

Back at the hostel, we got ready had a couple of drinks at the hostel bar which had all of 8 people in it and then Bevan (A Kiwi guy Sophie knows) picked us up and took us to a posh bar!! The glasses of wine were huge and it was such a treat to be having nice rose rather than cheap arse goon!! I ended up very drunk and having lots of Northern vs Southern banter with one of Bevan's mates from Manchester!! His other mates were nice too, and it was great to be in a locals bar rather than one full of backpackers for a change!! We went to another bar, and had a couple more drinks before calling it a night! On the way out some random guys wrote on my arm!! You will see the photo, but I swear I said 'I love……….chocolate' and not the choice words they decided to write on my arm!!!

The next day I got up early despite the hangover as I was due to go on a free Kiwi Experience city tour of Auckland! After waiting outside the hostel for 20 minutes with some other dudes we were told the tour wouldn't be going ahead that day because of a local festival all the Kiwi drivers were attending!!Instead I made my way up the Sky Tower!! I don't know why I insist on going up all the sky towers in the different countries I go to when I hate heights but the photos are worth it!!This particular tower was very scary as the lift is transparent so you can see everything as you travel up!!Afterwards I came back to the hostel and napped for a bit and then decided sod it I'm still going to try and go to the places I would have done on my free tour! So I whipped out the lonely planet guidebook realized I was a three minute walk away from the ferry terminal and after scoffing a McDonalds hopped on a ferry across to Devonport. From there I went on a quick hour tour of the town and the scenery was pretty amazing.The sun was shining and I enjoyed an ice-cream followed by a nap and reading my book in the park, it was a very nice afternoon!! On the ferry back I got chatting to an old English couple who were cruising round the world, they were so nice!!

I had an early one that night in preparation for another early start the next day.

So, Sunday Morning we checked out and jumped on our first Kiwi Experience bus to Paihia.Sophie and I were cursing under our breaths about some annoying gobby English chick who loved the sound of her voice and sat at the front chatting up the driver the entire time! Blatantly one of those girls that tries to sleep with as many tour guides as possible!! I've never seen such outrageous flirting!! Anyway after four hours or so we arrived at the Bay of Islands .The scenery was amazing and to our delight the weather was fab too!After checking in at the hostel we jumped on the ferry to Russell which is where Sophie's Mum and step dad lives.It was lovely to meet them although Stewart (Sophie's step dad) took me by surprise when he said you must be jugs!! Turns out he's on facebook and had seen the photos of me in Byron bay with the two jugs of beer I won hence the nickname!!

Anyway we raided the fridge at their place and set off for Long Beach! Sophie didn't tell me we had to walk up three giant hills in order to get there! But it was well worth the walk!! We spent the rest of the afternoon there and in the evening we enjoyed gourmet takeaways pizzas with Rose wine on the beach and watched the sun set. The photos are spectacular!! Once back in Paihia it was another early night as we had an even earlier start in the morning!!

We were picked up at 7am by the craziest tour guide I have yet to meet.He was rather like Otto from the Simpsons!! He introduced himself as Fiat although his actual name is auto and he apparently changes it every time he does a new tour! After doing his spiel he put in his ear phones, listened to some hard core music and pretended to be playing the drums for the duration of the day whilst he was driving!! It really was hilarious to watch and he would continue drumming away listening to his iPod whilst talking to us all soon the microphone!! He said 'sweet as bros' soooo many times I lost count and another favourite catchphrase was 'I sh*t you not!!' Bloody funny guy though, and although he joked about being on medication I'm pretty sure he needs to be!!

We stopped for breakfast and picked up some lunch and then drove for a couple of hours on the windiest road have ever experience in my life. I haven't got travel sickness for years but my god I felt sick. I tried shutting my eyes, opening them, sucking werthers originals, and in the end decided if I was to be sick my plan would be to grab the cap off the guy in front and spew into it! Luckily enough for both myself and the guy with the cap this wasn't necessary as when we arrived at Cape Reinga - New Zealand's most northern point (accessible to visitors) and I had some fresh air I felt much better!

The lighthouse at Cape Reinga looks over the meeting place of the Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean and is a very spiritual place for the Maori people as they believe that their souls depart from here for their ancestral home of Hawaiki.It is forbidden to eat and drink in this spiritual place, although smoking is allowed!! How that works I'll never know!

After lunch at the beach we went sand surfing at the Te Paki quicksand stream!! We had to walk up a 120 metre sand dune but the ride down on body boards was well worth it!! Once was enough for me though, I don't think my legs would have coped with going up again!! The amount of exercise I've done in the past few days is probably more than I did my whole time in Australia! It's good to be active again!!! And makes me feel less guilty about all the food &booze I'm consuming!!

We then drove along Ninety mile beach which is actually 64 miles long and our bus driver kept us entertained, racing the other tour vans! On the way back to Paihia we enjoyed fish and chips at a lovely little spot!! Sophie and I took a walk to the local Maori feature and another early night followed in preparation for another early morning start….honestly there is no rest for the wicked!! ;-)

So, today we had to be on a dolphin discovery boat at 7.45am and we cruised around the bay and the Ocean for about 4 hours!! We got chatting to a couple of guys from Germany who were lovely and well funny!Good job too because for the first two hours there were no dolphins to be seen! But it all came together about 10am when the sun came out and we spotted dolphins!! Because there was a baby dolphin we were unable to swim with them but we got some amazing photos and it was great to see dolphins in their natural environment.After about half an hour we were told another boat had spotted another school of dolphins. We had to go quite far out into the ocean to find them and my god it was choppy!! But well worth it, this time it was a group of four and they were loving showing up and jumping about!! As some of you may know I've been to Sea world and swam with dolphins in Mexico which were in captivity but nothing compared to seeing them in their natural environment and it made me quite sad to realise how many (apparently 52% of dolphins) are put into commercial places such as SeaWorld etc.

In the afternoon Sophie and I raided the fridge again at her parent's place (yummy yummy) and freshened up before heading back on the ferry and leaving on the Kiwi bus back to Auckland. I had dinner with Craig (a very funny guy from Manchester, and had great fun taking the piss out of Man U's recent loss to Portsmouth!)

And that's all for now folks, tomorrow morning we leave for Mercury Bay! It's all good! Speak to you soon! xxx