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Hi all Well i am now on my last leg of touring around new zealand. When i last wrote i had just been to milford sound in the south island, i have now travelled all the way back up into the north island and am now in the bay of islands. Upon leaving queenstown we headed up to Dunedin, where we stayed for the night, apparently Dunedin is similiar to Edinburgh. We managed to find the cadbury's factory so had to force ourselves to go on the tour, what a a tough choice! We got loads of free samples and got to smell the melted chocolate. We then left dunedin and headed for Lake Tekapo, not much to do there so in true kiwi style we had a barbeque, with lots of free flowing alcohol. As you can imagine it was a messy night, by most people, but surprise surprise i didnt really get drunk so was playing mum and making sure people didnt really do themselves any serious damage! The hostel was gorgeous, it had a lake front view and was pretty new. We all left lake tekapo, with slightly sore heads and headed for christchurch. by this point the scenary is beginning to change, as we went through the canterbury planes. I said goodbye to a couple of the tour as they finished in christchurch, but stayed with a couple of other people. We ended up staying in a motel sort of room with our own onsuite bathroom and sky tv - what luxury. I spent 2 nights in chrsitchurch, which was great as it gave us a chance to unwind and just wander around the city - we found a little craft market with lots of jewellery and maori bone carvings, aswell as a food market with stalls from around the world - so as you can imagine we were in our element, and couldnt decide what food we wanted to eat. Ater 2 nights we then moved onto Kaikora - orginally i was going to go dolphin swimming but wasnt sure about the wheather. Instead we went for a walk along the beach, we saw a couple of blow holes and whale finns inthe distance, but then when we were sitting inthe beach cafe, we saw an orca tail just close to the waters edge - i have never heard 5 girls squeel so much as we did when we saw the orca tail - what a view for free! We had all decided to we wanted a fish and chip supper - so found this little cafe, i had blue cod, and all i can say is wow! It tasted so good. When we arrived in kiakora it was pretty cloudy and wet so didnt relly get to see the scenary, when we woke up the next morning, the view we had from the hostel was amazing - there were snow capped mountains directly behind the hostel. On arriving in Kaikora we got to see some fur seals and then leaving we also got to see more fur seals - oh its a hard life being a seal, all they do is lie around on rocks and sunbathe! We then headed for picton where we caught the ferry for 3 hours back to the north island. The crossing was so calm, we were able to stay out on the sun deck for the 3 hours - we took advantage of this as it was really the first sunshine we had seen in a long time. We arrived back in wellington, and had to try and find the shuttle bus to take us to our hostel, unfortunately we couldnt find it and had to take a taxi - which would have been fine except there had been a bomb scare in wellington, so the whole city came to a standstill, and typically the taxi fair didnt run by the km, it went by the minute, so ended up paying a fortune. i had one night in wellington, back in the same hostel that i stayed in on the way down. I left the next morning and ended up having the same driver that brought me down the north island. The next stop was napier, a town that had been devestated by an earthquake in 1930, it has now been rebuilt and is now known as an art deco, it didnt really seem that different to the other towns i had been in, but didnt really get a chance to see much of it as we arrived late, but got to walk along the beach front which was really nice. I left the next morning, bright and early as per usual, and headed for mount maunganui, onroute we stopped in taupo and rotorua, where this time i got to go in the polynesion spas, hot thermal springs which are all good for your skin, but unfortunately they stank of rotten eggs, took a bit of a time to get off my skin, but it is gradually going now. On arrival tot he town we walked along the beach, found a guy who was fishing with a rather long line, with several hooks and a sweat that gradually melted. We were meant to go back to see if he had caught anything but got distracted by the pub and the all you can eat chinese buffet, we were all very full after our dinner. We left yesterday and headed back to auckland, unfotuantley there ws a mix up with our hostel booking, but luckily we got it sorted, very lucky as U2 are in town and now accommodation available. I left auckland today and i am now in Paihia with gorgeous weather. Must go for now as internt about to run out of time. sharon
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