So we r in New Zealand now and i LURVE LURVE LURVE it!!!! It is such an amazing country. Amazing nature. Amazing activities. Amazing people (esp the Maori's- the native New Zealanders). Amazing everything!!! I sware i have been on a crazy adrenaline high since the second our plane set down!!

We arrived in Auckland on the 14th and went straight to our hostel (ACB) and immediately booked our Kiwi Experience bus to leave the next day (no point hanging around eh?). The Kiwi experience bus is basically an orgaised bus that takes u all over NZ, showing you all the best walks, sights, organising activities for you etc. And the best bit about it is it is full of fellow like minded travellers so it is really fun (kinda like a huge scale road trip).

So the next morning we were up at 6.45 (yep we r early birds now) to catch our 7.45 bus to take us North to the Bay of Islands. There is something like 144 islands there and we stayed in Paihai at pipi patch hostel. Once there we decided to go on this recommended 10km (like 5 mile-ish) walk to see the Harura falls (basically a pretty cool waterfall). The walk was LONG!! It was through a forest though so it was really scenic. Finally there, we had a picture sesh by the waterfall (we love our photo's!!) and 5 of us were ready for the trek back...jess and Rose got a taxi!! Faye kept us all going on the way back to with a game of trivial pursuit- my common sense is shocking!!!

The following morning we went on a boat to try and find and swim with wild dolphins (except 4 Anne- fish phobia remember). In some respects we were very lucky as we really quicky found a massive pod of bottlenose dolphins who came and played by the boat and when we laid at the front we could almost touch them (one actually blew me with his airhole..cheeky!!). unfortunately for us there were babies in the pod so we couldn't swim with them (dumb laws). So although a little gutted-if i'm honest-apparently we did have an amzing sighting, so can't complain to much. in the afternoon me and faye went for a bike ride and then at 4pm we headed back to Aukland for one night to start our journey South.

So on the 17th we had an another early start to catch our bus south to Mercury Bay. We sat at the front and were quite hyper and spent most of the day annoying our awesome Maori driver (called manamaa- or Maa for short) and our fellow passengers with loud out of tune singing and the such (miserable lot they needed some waking up!!! it's ok they have all seemed to come alive a bit now tho..or at least some of them.)

So anyway, our first stop was still in Auckland where we went to the top of mount Eden (or Maungawhai), which is one of 70 dormant volcanoes in the region. From here there is an amzing view of Auckland.

Our next stop of the day (after we annoyed some more people on the bus) was in mercury bay where we visited hot water beach. Which is a funky little beach where u can dig holes in the sand near the thermal outlook and soak in the hot water..pretty cool eh.

After some more time on the bus we visited another couple of beachs where we had to do a little walking to get to. The first was Sting-ray bay which was very pretty and we all went to that one. Then me, Faye and Anne did the longer walk to Cathedral Cove. Which was cool as it had some really picturesque rock formations.

After this we headed the rest of our way to Mercury Bay to our hostel (Turtle Cove) and went out for a St Paddys day drink in 'Mickeys' (to get to know our fellow travellers a little better). It was a very amusing night involving some very odd kiwi's and Rose's surperb irish jig really toped off a great day!!!

From Mercury bay we headed onwards to Rotorua. On the way there we stopped off to do  Karangahake walk. Which is a walk through the old gold mining caves. It was  pitch black and a little scary and Maa kept hiding behind walls trying to scare us!!

We also stopped off for some food at Matamata which is home of the hobbits (ie lord of the rings).

Once there we rushed off to do a bit of Zorbing. Which is a very strange activity where you get in a giant plastic beach ball which had been filled slightly with warm water and then roll down a hill. Sounds a little strange but it was honestly a lot of fun!! Me, Matt and Jess went togethr and we were litterally kicking each other the whole way down!!!

That evening we went to a traditional Mouri Hangi (meal) and concert. We got to see their villiage and had to do a traditional Mouri challenge to determine whether we were coming as friends or foe (which basically involved us not smiling when they were showing us their traditional dances as this is a sign of disrespect). We also got to watch a Poi dance and weaponry dances and the Haka as well as dining on a traditional Hongi (a meal steamed in the ground on hot rocks). It was delicious and a really entertaining night.

The next morning the girls went white water rafting whilst i went white water sledging with some of the boys we've made friends with on our bus down the Kaituna river. My two guides were Wicca and Jon and were good fun. White water sledging is basically going down the rapids holding onto a boogy board type thing rather than being in a raft, so its a lot scarier (and more painful if u hit a rock!!) but personally i thought it was a lot more fun...esp as everytime u went over a rapid or down a water fall u were litterally thrown everywhere!

The rest of the day has been spent making our way to Waitomo.