Hey its Stu hanging out in Wellington, waiting for Josh to dive it through the sky in Taupo with Rach and Soph, before he arrives here so we can sail to the South Island.

So first impressions of New Zealand... Cold! A good 5, 6 or 7 degrees colder than Sydney, which incidently was about the same difference colder when we were in South East Asia. The difference now is we have to wear layers like jeans and a hoody otherwise we could be overcome by a slight dosage of hypothermia! There's also a less intense party scene here, and for mine and Josh's point of view, our livers could do with the break, after Australia - as well as the debit card!

As I'm sure you're all aware, New Zealand is all about 3 things: Scenery, Extreme Sports and Rugby. I'd safely say we're here mainly for the first two! You get this so called rugby game a lot in the UK, not so much the other two!

We began our NZ adventure by heading north of Auckland to Paihia - The Bay of Islands. A lot of scenery here, but did remind us a lot of the British coastline in places and sort of gave us a feeling we were at home. We visited all the islands by using the Excitor Jet Boat (its a boat thats pretty nippy!). One of the main attractions being the famous Hole in the Rock formation. We also had the excitement of dolphins swimming along with the boat, at times when the boat wasn't at full speed!

After spending a few days here, as well as myself getting bed bugs for the 4th time since this travelling adventure has started, we travelled back to Auckland for another couple of nights. We both then got the bus to Hamilton, where I chilled out for a couple of nights, visited the main town centre and the Waitako Chiefs rugby union team's stadium - Josh went to Raglan for a bit of a surf but soon hurried back after horrible weather preventedany half-suitable surfing! Hamilton is a fairly boring place and I advise anyone travelling to NZ to try and skip Hamilton, unless surfing in Raglan, and just keep heading to Rotorua.

Josh's surf adventure continued with more success, as he travelled to the other coast to Gisbourne, although this happened only after a comical event (I doubt Josh will agree!). Whilst the bus was on a pit stop for a bit of a break, Josh used the facilties provided by the cafe/petrol station, however the driver failed to note this and continued the journey without Josh - but with all of his bags! All Josh had was his wallet, as he had to wait for the bus the next day in some random place with a Maori name! Ahhhhh.. Good Old Travelling Eh!

The same day I travelled without the drama that Josh had to overcome to Rotorua, which in Maori means Two Lakes or Two Rivers or something along those lines. No. It should definitely be called Town that is Far too Smelly for its own liking, due to the geothermal action it gets! Although having a rather egyy, unpleasant smell, there were plenty of spas visit and hot pools to use. I also took a cable car to the top of some mountain and luged down it (luging is some sort of go-karting thing with no gears just a 'go' and 'stop' function, going down a gravel course around the mountain). All good fun none the less, even if I nearly crashed for going too fast! I also had good usage of the local driving range, as well as the baseball simulator machine it had in one of the bays there.

I'm led to believe at this point Josh has made a surfing buddy with a 30 year old Japanese guy who doesnt speak English, buit the waves are menna be damn good so he's definitely a happy bunny!

Next came the big one... the next destination... Lake Taupo! Here, i did two of the most commonly done things in NZ, let alone the North Island! Firstly for some reason I decided to get up at 6:00 AM, on a nice chilly morning and walk/climb seeing how steep some of the walk was for 17km! It was the Tonganiro Crossing. the hard work walking and climbing was well worth the sites that I came to see, despite having very cramped legs the next day.

Josh and I were meant to meet up in Taupo for the next event. The SkyDive! But one thing led to another and it just wasn't possible with our busy schedules, and I did the dive 4 days before him! However as i write this, i believe Josh is plummeting through the air. It was one of the best/most exhilarating/scariest... i could go on with a hell of a lot of words to describe the dive but i guess you'd get bored! You need to jump out of a plane to understand!

Take care, we're going to the South Island tomorrow. Cya soon!